August 25, 2010

Kazakhstan sees grain production at 16 million tonnes

This year, Kazakhstan is likely to harvest 16 million tonnes of grain in bunker weight and over 14 million tonnes in clean weight, and the country's grain export in the 2010-2011 marketing year is expected to be eight million tonnes, said President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Nazarbayev said there were seven million tonnes of grain left over from last year's harvest, making the country's grain resources this year 21 million tonnes.

The agriculture ministry said earlier Kazakhstan was likely to harvest this year only 13.5 million tonnes of grain compared with 20.8 million in 2009 amid the unusually dry weather and a reduction in area planted with grain.

Kazakhstan's grain export in the 2010-2011 marketing year, according to the agriculture ministry's previous harvest estimate, was expected to fall to 6.5 million tonnes from 8.3 million tonnes in the 2009-2010 marketing year.