A foot injury I sustained while climbing kept me away from the bazaar for the last month. Now I'm back at it and with improved language skills to match my eagerness to get the heck out of my place.
Erbolot is a shuttle trader. He buys goods, mostly clothes, and loads up a taxi to travel to Kazakhstan. There he stores the goods in a container bazaar near Almaty where he can sell the clothes at a healthy 80% profit margin. Erbolot makes the journey about once every 2-3 weeks, though lately the intervals have increased to closer to 4 weeks. The profit margins have decreased toboot, since November they’ve decreased steadily to the current profitability of around 60%. This is still good business but with overhead cost of transport steady at about $200 per trip the monthly rental dues for the container holding at about $70, Erbolot is worried about how his business will be in another couple months.
Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan, has established itself as a regional financial capital, partly out of necessity in order to lubricate foreign investment in developing Kazakhstan’s rich energy reserves. In recent years, Almaty enjoyed an almost meteoric rise as oil prices were high and global finances were hopefully exploring new markets. Prices in Almaty soared to levels akin to those found in Northern Europe or global city centers: a simple meal at a restaurant could not be found for less than $US 25. As a result of Almaty’s boom, the wholesale bazaar at Dordoi made brisk trade by arbitraging goods between China and Kazakhstan (and often onward to Russia). Affordable Chinese goods are imported to Kyrgyzstan relatively easily. Compared to its Northern neighbors, Kyrgyzstan has fairly workable tariff regime. The border guards are also corrupt at more reasonable than their Kazakh comrades according to many drivers and traders who make a living crossing the borders. As a result, goods arrive in Kyrgyzstan by the truckload from China. Their destination is very often Dordoi Bazaar, conveniently located near major roadways that cross into Kazakhstan and continue on to Almaty.
At Dordoi, very often small traders buy the goods in bulk from the Chinese massive wholesalers. These Shuttle traders then stuff a taxi chalk full of whatever goods they have elected to transit. A small industry of porters and clothes compacters earn a living by maximizing the efficient use of space on the part of the shuttle traders.
Erbolot manages his risk by only holding about one taxi load of goods at a time. He sells the goods himself to the customer, keeping him well informed about trends in demand and style. He does not own his own taxi. He stays with relatives while in Bishkek. He also has a relationship of mutual recognition with the Kazakh border guards. He provides them with a modest bribe to ease him through the often drawn out border crossing process. With so many small traders transiting the border, almost always with modest cargos, the border guards don’t find it worth their while to impinge trade. Larger transfers are more conspicuous in their flouting the tariff regime and attract more unwanted skepticism on the part of the guards. The gap between the law as written and the law as it is enforced, allows small traders like Erbolot to flourish while larger-scale wholesalers find difficulty.
