The small village of Imantau in the North Kazakhstan region is called the capital of petunias, where, planting flowers for sale, local residents give the lion’s share of tax deductions to the budget of Aiyrtau district.
After analyzing the experience of successful small business development in Imantau, representatives of NCE “Atameken” and the regional chamber of entrepreneurs proposed to change approaches to the development of business development programs, taking into account regional characteristics.
Ilnar Galyamshin, a representative of the Agro-Rural Tourism Association, spoke about the success story of Imantau flower growers.
– About 15 years ago, my father-in-law Idris Kuzakhmetov decided to breed petunias. Seeing how great the demand for these flowers was, he suggested that one family grow them. Created conditions, built greenhouses. They planted plants, grew them, and he bought them back. Then he offered to plant flowers for another family. Now there are 150 greenhouses in Imantau, more than 500 villagers are involved in the cultivation of petunias,” Ilnar summed up the development of the flower project.
Petunia seeds are supplied from the Netherlands and the USA. Logistics is well established. There are no supply failures. The price of a kilogram of seeds reaches one and a half million tenge. But it’s worth it. Practice has shown that Dutch petunias take root well in the north of Kazakhstan. Local residents have learned to apply modern irrigation technologies.
The flower business in Imantau initially developed without attracting state subsidies, although the price of a modern greenhouse reaches 10 million tenge. Only one resident of Imantau applied for state support – in 2019 he received a grant for welding equipment to make stoves for greenhouses.
The whole country learned about Imantau petunias. Flowers come here from the most remote regions.
– We do not have to search for sales markets, – says Ilnar Galyamshin. – Flowers from Imantau are brought to Nur-Sultan, Kokshetau, Petropavlovsk, Ust-Kamenogorsk. In 2021, even Shymkent came for our petunias.
An illustration of success is the prices for land and real estate in Imantau, which are commensurate with those in the capital. One yard-greenhouse grows over a hundred thousand flowers per season. The purchase price of one petunia is 45 tenge. More than 4 million tenge is received by one family for three months of intensive work. The rest of the time, preparatory work is underway.
Each greenhouse employs at least three to four people. By the way, in the city the price of petunias reaches 600 tenge per flower.
The only problem in Imantau is the lack of workers, although local flower growers are willing to pay five thousand tenge a day.
