August 9, 2012
Kazakhstan to stop grain transit through Black Sea in 2013
Kazakhstan will refuse to transit grain through the Black Sea in 2013.
Kazakhstan will refuse transit grain through Black Sea in 2013, according to the president of the Grain Union of Kazakhstan Nurlan Tleubayev during the video bridge Moscow-Kyiv-Astana "Food Security: forecasts, risks, concerns".
"I want to say to my colleagues from Russia and Ukraine: we will await further 12 months and starting from harvest 2013, we will refuse to be your competitors in the Black Sea region. And I will not go back on my words," Tleubayev said.
He added that this decision is connected with the opening of the railway connecting Georgia and Turkey, scheduled for early 2014: "We will refuse to transit through Russia. We have a port of Aktau, the cars will go through the Caspian Sea and then through Azerbaijan and Georgia to get to Turkey."
