OREANDA-NEWS The fast food chain McDonald's plans to leave Kazakhstan, Bloomberg reports, citing informed sources. It is clarified that the reason for this was interruptions in the supply of meat from Russia against the background of the beginning of a special operation in Ukraine.

Sources told the agency that although Kazakh enterprises are not subject to sanctions against Moscow, McDonald's has banned local franchisees from buying cutlets from Russian suppliers.It is also clarified that Kazakh companies could not buy cutlets from local or European suppliers, since higher prices and costs for transporting goods across the country would mean doing business at a loss.

In November 2022, McDonald's in Kazakhstan (Food Solutions KZ LLP) announced on its website and in social networks that it was suspending the operation of all its restaurants from November 18 due to restrictions in local supplies. The company assured that it is making every effort to resume work as soon as possible, promising to inform about the opening dates of the restaurants later. McDonald's franchisee in Kazakhstan is a large businessman Kairat Boranbayev, who held the 14th position in the ranking of the richest businessmen in the country according to Forbes Kazakhstan magazine in 2021 with a fortune of $ 590 million. At the end of December 2022, he appeared in court in Astana in the case of embezzlement in the gas sector.

McDonald's suspended its operations in Russia in March 2022, and later decided to completely withdraw from the market and sell the business. The buyer was the licensee of the company, Alexander Govor, who now manages restaurants under the new brand "Delicious — period".