Lay’s potato chips on display at an aisle in a supermarket. Credit: MDV Edwards / Shutterstock.com

US-based food manufacturing giant PepsiCo is injecting $160m into a new salty snacks plant in Kazakhstan.

The site will be used to make products like Lay’s potato crisps, according to an official statement released today (14 June) by Kazakhstan Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov.

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David Manzini, the president of PepsiCo’s business in Russia and the CIS, met with Bektenov to discuss the building of the new site, which is to be located in the city of Almaty, near the Kyrgyzstan border.

The facility, which is to be completed by 2026, is expected to reach a production capacity of up to 16,000 tonnes of snack products a year upon opening. From 2027, PepsiCo is looking to boost this to 17,000 tonnes.

Products produced at the Almaty factory will be sold “to the central Asian market and beyond”, according to the statement.

Around 350 new jobs are expected to be generated at the new plant, while 1,000 people will be employed to construct the site.

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PepsiCo said it also plans to purchase “mainly local raw materials” to produce its snacks, by buying around 50 to 66 thousand tonnes of potatoes from Kazakhstani farmers between 2026 and 2030.

Both parties are said to have committed to increasing “interaction” with one another and “[building] long-term cooperation” around initiatives that “contribute to increasing the food potential of Kazakhstan”.

In a bid to carry out more environmentally sustainable manufacturing practices, waste at the new factory “will be 100% recycled and utilised”.

Bektenov said: “The USA is one of the most important investment partners of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is interested in long-term cooperation with such strategic investors as PepsiCo.

“We are committed to honouring our investment protection obligations and are ready to provide the necessary support.”

PepsiCo has invested more than $53bn in Kazakhstan in the past 20 years, according Bektenov.

Last November, former Prime Minister Alikhan Samilov reportedly announced that the country was looking to bring in large sums of foreign direct investment (FDI) by 2029.

According to the local news agency Trend at the time, during the sixth edition of the Kazakhstan Global Investment Roundtable, Samilov said the country planned to bring in more than $150bn in FDI as part of its National Investment Policy.

In May, PepsiCo set out plans to invest in production in Belgium and the UK.