Iran to allot land plot for Kazakh grain terminal
By Aynur Jafarova
Iran will allot a land plot for the construction of a Kazakh grain terminal in Golestan province by late 2014, Kazakh Agriculture Ministry said.
The Ministry told Trend Agency that this multifunctional terminal with a storage capacity of 20,000 metric tons of grain will be constructed on the Iran-Turkmenistan border near the Inceburun station.
The Kazakh Astyk Terminal company has expressed its interest in constructing the terminal.
"Currently, the final stage of company's registration in Iran is underway. Appropriate measures are being taken to obtain a land plot for the construction of a grain terminal," the ministry said. "According to the Kazakh Embassy in Iran, the company's registration procedures will complete and the land plot will be allocated in December 2014."
Implementing the project of increasing Kazakhstan's grain export to Iran up to 2.5 million metric tons is among the main priorities of the country. Moreover, this project is included in the road map on trade-economic, mining and investment cooperation between the two countries.
Currently, a terminal in the Iranian Golestan province is the only new grain terminal outside the country.
Earlier Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said Iran has expressed its readiness to purchase up to 6 million tons of grain per year from Kazakhstan.
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. Kazakhstan exported 8.7 million tons of grain in 2013-2014 marketing year.
In 2012, Kazakh farmers harvested only 14.8 tons of grain due to a 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'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 was $1.2 billion in 2013 while in 2009 this figure was about $600 million.
Kazakhstan plans to export about 7 million metric tons of grain in the new marketing year.