According to the Kazakh Ministry of Agriculture, this year the total area of agricultural crops in Kazakhstan was 23.3 million hectares, of which 16.7 million hectares were sown with cereals. To date, field work is 99.7% complete and 26.5 million tons of grain have been threshed.
At the Government session on October 23, Deputy Minister of Trade and Integration Kairat Torebayev reported on Kazakhstan’s export potential in cereals.
He said that Kazakhstan’s export potential for cereals is estimated at 12 million tons, including 7-7.5 million tons of wheat, 1.4 million tons of barley, and 300 thousand tons of corn. For oilseeds, the potential is estimated at more than 1 million tons.
“Kazakhstan will continue deliveries to the markets of Central Asia and Afghanistan, it is about 4.2 million tons. In general, for cereals, exports to China amounted to 1.43 million tons in 2023, showing growth of 5.5 times year-on-year,” Torebayev said.
The Deputy Minister also noted that wheat exports to China increased significantly, reaching 538.8 thousand tons in 2023, which is almost 15 times higher than the previous year.
“This demonstrates the possibility of increasing supplies to China and Asian countries to 1.6 million tons of wheat. It is important to work through the issue of delays at the border due to the requirements of Chinese authorities, as well as complex conditions such as licences and quotas for imports of Kazakh grain in China,” Torebayev added.
The export potential to Turkey and Middle East countries is almost 1 million tons of wheat.
“It is important to restore supplies to the Iranian market, for barley we are now seeing dynamics, issues of trade financing and logistics will be worked out. Work will be intensified to promote the brand of Kazakh wheat in new markets such as Pakistan, Indonesia, Brazil, Malaysia, where import growth is predicted,” Torebayev emphasized.
The Ministry together with the Food Corporation prepared country offers with indication of logistic routes and export prices. Negotiations were held and preliminary agreements were reached on the export to Armenia (600 thousand tons) and Italy (1 million tons). Negotiations on exports of 200 thousand tons to North African countries are underway.
Photo: gov.kz
