The KazFoodProducts group of companies became the first company in Kazakhstan to pass this certification. At the same time, compliance with international standards of gender equality of labor was assigned to Bayan Sulu JSC, AsiaAgroFood JSC, Biooperations LLP, EMC agro LLP and the management company KazFoodProducts LLP, which are members of the group.
The company began taking the first steps to achieve this result in June 2023 in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group.
“According to the McKinsey Research Institute, gender equality will not only drive the performance of private companies, but will also increase global GDP by 20%. Therefore, recognition of our agricultural holding as worthy of the EDGE certificate is a significant event both for the company, for the country, and even for the Central Asian region. We are pleased to become the first company in Kazakhstan to be EDGE gender certified. We express our gratitude to IFC for the fruitful cooperation,” said Alikhan Talgatbek, General Director of KazFoodProducts LLP.
KazFoodProducts, founded in 1998, is one of the leading agro-industrial holdings of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The holding consists of 20 subsidiaries, employing about 5 thousand people. 65% of the employed personnel are women. Manufacturers produces products that are sold on the domestic market and also exported to Brazil, the USA, Great Britain, Russia, Turkey, China and the countries of Central Asia. It is also necessary to highlight the company’s great social contribution to the development of the country’s agro-industrial complex with the introduction of innovations in production.
Among the holders of the EDGE certificate are such global economic brands as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Bank Group, IFC, UNICEF, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Chevron, IKEA, UniCredit, Deloitte and many other international organizations that consider gender equality a key priority in their activities.