August 26, 2010

Tatarstan, Bashkotostan to purchase Kazakhstan's grain

Drought-affected Tatarstan and Bashkortostan have plans to buy large volumes of Kazakh grain in 2010, said Kazakh Agriculture Ministry's Agriculture Department Director, Anna Buts.

"We have received a letter from Bashkortostan on its intention to buy our wheat. Moreover, Russian Deputy Agriculture Minister Alexander Belyaev discussed the purchase of Kazakh wheat by Tatarstan in a telephone conversation with his Kazakh counterpart Saktash Khasenov," Buts said.

Despite the fact that Russia itself is the largest grain producer, Kazakh grain supplies to the neighbouring country have traditionally ranged from 1.5 million-2 million tonnes per year until 2007, Buts said. 

Basically, our customers were the regions of the Asian part of Russia - Chelyabinsk and Omsk, and the largest metropolis - Moscow, Buts said. 

The major grain producers in Kazakhstan will increase their supplies to neighbouring Russia, the Caucasus, Iran and Central Asia, according to Kazakh National Company Food Contract Corporation Commercial Affairs Managing Director Daulet Uvashev.

Uvashev added that traditionally, Kazakh supplied about 800,000 tonnes to Azerbaijan and Georgia. The figure may be increased to two million tonnes of grain. Kazakhstan can safely absorb these volumes. About four million will be exported to the countries of Central Asia and Afghanistan.

According to official figures, Kazakhstan's export potential will reach eight million tonnes of grain this year. The expected harvest is 14-15 million tonnes.