Clustering of the dairy Industry in Almaty region of the Republic of Kazakhstan: stakeholder engagement

The article examines the potential of Kazakhstan’s regions for developing the dairy sector through the launch of clustering projects, as well as the prospects for stakeholder management within such initiatives. A dairy cluster is defined as an alliance of organizationally independent enterprises integrated into an inter-industry system that can achieve shared goals based on mutual economic and organizational interests, acting as a food supply chain of complementary economic actors. The goal is to analyze performance indicators of dairy farms in promising districts of the republic through the lens of cluster formation, and to propose potential stakeholders for inclusion in a territorial cluster. Methods – graphical and comparative methods were used to identify trends in dairy production expansion; grouping was applied to determine the most significant factors influencing the dairy market environment; logical analysis was used for data generalization and systematization; economic-statistical methods were used to study the trends in capacity growth of dairy industry enterprises. Results – the study demonstrates significant advantages of the Almaty region for creating and scaling up a dairy production complex compared to other areas. Conclusions – proposals were developed for organizing an efficiently functioning dairy cluster in the region with specific, geographically concentrated stakeholders, along with evidence supporting the fulfillment of their expectations and the achievement of mutual economic benefits. The implementation of this initiative is expected to meet domestic market demand, significantly increase export volumes, address issues of livestock feed supply, improve the competitive value and attractiveness of dairy products, and expand the raw material base.