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Abstract
The paper provides an overview of the institutional arrangements on the micro level that have
evolved in the agro-food sector of Kazakhstan in the course of transition. Emphasis is laid on
more complex arrangements like "agroholdings" and "clusters", hitherto mostly unknown in the
agro-food sectors of established market economies. It is shown that "agroholdings" are concentrated
mainly in the northern part of Kazakhstan and to a large extent in the grain sector, while
in the south a scattered small scale (individual) farm structure has emerged. Parallel to this
market-driven development, the Kazakhstani government tries to promote other institutional
arrangements that it deems to be of superior competitiveness, especially agro-food clusters.
Refering to Hayek’s concept of pretence of knowledge and empirical evidence of cluster facilitation
policies of other countries the success of the Kazakhstani cluster initiative is questioned.