Kazakhstan has agreed to help Russia alleviate its chronic shortage of chicken eggs only to spark grumbling from domestic consumers in border areas who now say there are not enough for them to buy.

The pledge of assistance arrived at a meeting on trade issues between Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin and his Russian counterpart, Alexei Overchuk, in Astana on January 17.

Eggs featured on the agenda. As the Russian state statistics service has reported, the price of the commodity soared by more than 61% last year, prompting the government in Moscow to adopt some radical fixes. One was a plan to exempt 1.2bn eggs from customs duties in the first half of this year.

But first Russia needs to find somebody to supply the eggs. At the Astana meeting, Overchuk asked for Kazakhstan’s help, and he received a positive response.

Zhumangarin instructed the Agriculture Ministry to increase the supply of eggs to Russia as soon as possible.

“In matters of food security, flexibility in decision-making is necessary,” he said.

But this gesture of goodwill is not going down well in Kazakhstan, which has struggled for years to cope with its own inflation woes.

On January 18, residents in the northwestern city of Uralsk told journalists that they have seen a quota imposed on the number of eggs being sold at state-run stores, where goods are traded at subsidised prices. The limit is 10 per person. Residents suspect plans to begin exporting more to Russia may be to blame.

“It will be more profitable for entrepreneurs to send eggs for export at an inflated price than to sell them here at a reduced price. After all, everyone will think about their own benefit. But will anyone think about us?” the local news site Moi Gorod quoted Kulyash Dauylbaeva, a resident of Uralsk, as saying.

Agriculture officials told Moi Gorod that the quota was introduced to prevent speculators from buying up excess amounts of the local product and taking it across to Russia to sell at a handsome profit.

Otherwise, the egg situation has generally been satisfactory in Kazakhstan of late. According to government data, the egg supply level in 2022 was 2% above the population’s needs. Last year, Kazakhstan was able to export 190mn excess units to neighbouring Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan.

This article first appeared on Eurasianet here.