September 16, 2011

 

Kazakhstan eyes huge grain harvest

 

 

A government official said on Thursday (Sep 15) that Kazakhstan eyes for its biggest grain harvest and will push for new market exports.

 

Despite not giving precise forecast for Kazakhstan's 2011 grain crop, Yevgeny Aman, Agriculture Ministry executive secretary said it might exceed the record 20.8 million tonnes harvested in 2009.

 

"A very good harvest is maturing. It will probably be a record harvest in all the years of our independence," Aman told a visiting German delegation.

 

The grain crop in Kazakhstan, probably the world's seventh largest wheat exporter in a typical season, fell to 12.2 million tonnes in 2010 as a result of the drought that affected large area of the former Soviet Union.

 

The ministry's latest official forecast for the 2011 crop is 18.9 million tonnes. State-owned grain trader the Food Contract Corporation last month forecast a crop of around 19 million tonnes.

 

Black Sea grain exports are expected to recover this season as favourable weather restores crops in Russia and Ukraine, keeping prices at a level that allows both countries to regain markets in the Middle East and North Africa from competitors.

 

Aman said Kazakhstan would have the potential to export at least 10 million tonnes of grain in the current marketing year, which runs until June 30, 2012. This echoes the recent forecast of Agriculture Minister Asylzhan Mamytbekov.

 

Kazakhstan exported 5.9 million tonnes of wheat and flour in the 2010/11 marketing year, compared with 8.4 million tonnes in the previous 12 months.

 

Aman said the government would support Kazakh exporters by subsidising transport costs. Vast distances to ports on the Black and Baltic Seas are an impediment to Kazakhstan's ability to compete with Russian and Ukrainian wheat in a typical season.

 

"We are supporting our exporters, which raise objections from our competitors, but we intend to support them where we can," he told the meeting.

 

"We are reducing the transport component of delivering (grain) to the sea. Among grain-growing countries, we have the furthest distances to sea and therefore encounter the problems that come with that."

 

Aman did not give further details. Officials have previously said that Kazakhstan would subsidise wheat exports up to a total volume of 2.5 million tonnes by paying US$40 a tonne of the transport cost to port.

 

Traditionally, Kazakhstan's main export markets are its Central Asian neighbours and Afghanistan. Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan have also emerged as significant buyers in recent seasons.

 

Aman said that those markets close to their borders are unable right now to process the volumes they are exporting, so they need to expand this year.

 

This is already evident in Egypt, the world's largest wheat importer, which bought 300,000 tonnes of Russian and Kazakh wheat last week for Nov. 11-20 shipment.