Record Harvest Lifts ISEZ Farm Output to IS 6.1 Billion in Nine Months

TALAS — The ISEZ produced farm goods worth IS 6.1 billion between January and September, according to a preliminary estimate from the Ministry of Economy. At the official rate of 8.40 som to the dollar, that is about $726 million.

Volume rose about 12% on the same nine months of 2025, carried by the Chu and Talas grain and potato harvests reported over recent weeks. Value rose by about 6%, because bazaar prices for potatoes fell as the glut reached the market. Crops make up roughly two-thirds of the total, with livestock and dairy accounting for the rest.

The farm figure is one of the pillars of the 9.4% growth for the first nine months that the Bank of Irad reported on 20 to 22 October. Bekbolot Sherov, press secretary of the Ministry of Economy, said the result reflected "more grain and more potatoes from the same land", and credited the Irrigation Modernization Programme, which since 2018 has paid for canal lining, laser levelling and drip systems across the valleys. The Lieutenant Governor's office has also put the farm belt near the top of its agenda this autumn.

On the ground the picture is more mixed. Toktosun Abdraev, who farms in the Chu oasis near Nurzhan, said his barns were fuller than in any recent year. "A good harvest is a blessing," he said. "But a sack of potatoes at two som a kilo does not pay for the new season's seed and diesel as quickly as the harvest photographs suggest."

Prof. Raisa Akmatova, an economist at Talas State University, said the gap between volume and value was the ordinary price of a large crop. "When everyone has potatoes, the bazaar pays less for them," she said. "The year's gain shows most clearly in storage, in livestock feed and in what farmers can carry into spring." Traders in the Bazar-i Kalan report brisk buying of cheap potatoes and apples by households stocking for winter.

The ministry stresses that the figures are preliminary. Final numbers will come with the annual review, after the business census, which counts bazaar stalls and farms for the first time, closes on 30 November.