Kazakhstan exports about 9 mln tons of grain in 2013-2014 marketing year
By Aynur Jafarova
Kazakhstan exported 8.7 million tons of grain in 2013-2014 marketing year, which lasts till June 30.
The news was announced by Kazakh Agriculture Minister Asylzhan
Mamytbekov, Trend Agency reported.
"We shipped to export 8.7 million tons of grain in 2013-2014
marketing year," Mamytbekov noted. "Some 3 million tons of this
volume were exported in January 1 - July 20, 2014."
Kazakhstan is among the world's major grain exporters. In 2011, the
country had a record harvest of nearly 27 million tons of grain in
net weight.
In 2012, Kazakh farmers yielded only 14.8 tons of grain due to the summer drought which occurred in the main grain regions. In 2013 grain harvest hit 18.9 million tons including 14.5 million tons of wheat.
Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest grain producer, will boost grain exports to Iran and China this marketing year as it seeks to diversify regions of supply and reduce dependence on Russian and Ukrainian ports.
Kazakhstan exports the bulk of its grain mainly wheat and wheat flour by rail. Its only port on the Caspian Sea can handle less than 6 percent of its annual grain exports.
The Caspian port of Aktau in western Kazakhstan can handle between 500,000 and 600,000 tons of grain annually, a large part of which goes to Iran.
Experts of the Agriculture Ministry believe this year Iran will import about 1.2 million tons of wheat from Kazakhstan. Until now Iran has been buying about 300,000-500,000 tons of wheat from Kazakhstan.
It is expected that the exports to China will reach about 370,000 tons by the end of this marketing year.
Kazakhstan's total revenue from the wheat export has grown in the past four years by almost 2.5 times. The total revenue from wheat export over 2013 was $1.2 billion, while in 2009 this figure was about $600 million.