Kazakhstan Introduces Price Monitoring System

The new Derekhub.kz platform is designed to monitor and analyze the price dynamic of food staples and medicines, according to Kazakhstani Ministry of Trade and Integration.

At the first stage of the project, all merchants (convenience and chain stores) can add food staple prices to the system on their own.  

«Each merchant can make a registration in that system and create its own my account page. After that, these companies can fill out a form of 19 food staples. All they need is just specify a physical presence of specific products on their shelves as well as minimal prices of these products,» ErlanEshnazarov, deputy head of the ministry’s internal trade department, said.

Once the data is available for processing, the system automatically analyzes it and shows changes in the price dynamic. 

«The idea of this platform had been finalized in the middle of the pandemic. Because food staples and medicine prices rose this year by 30%, during the spring we introduced price limits for the whole country. This practice is still in place in some regions. However, to maintain these limits some spot checks are needed. Now, with help of new online platform, we are able to do this price monitoring on distance,» the official said. 

As the Ministry of Trade and Integration reports, to show a broad picture of this pricing, the new Derekhub.kz platform will work in conjunction with the tax authority’s online services. 

Moreover, to make Derekhub.kz more attractive for merchants, the platform offers some new services for its participants who are already registered and have completed a form of food staples physical presence and pricing.