October 21, 2009
Kazakhstan agrees to supply grain to China
Kazakhstan has agreed to supply grain to China, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reports Tuesday (October 20).
"China has opened a quota for grain purchase and at the latest meeting the Chinese premier told me that China would buy as much grain as Kazakhstan would sell," Kazakhstan Prime Minister Karim Masimov said.
Agriculture Minister Akylbek Kurishbayev said the country's traditional major wheat destinations, including former Soviet republics and the EU, were stepping up their own wheat production, leaving "elevators in the country's major grain-growing regions overfilled with grain," Novosti reports.
Kazakhstan's grain harvest this year has exceeded expectations at over 22 million tonnes.
