October 6, 2008

Kazakhstan grain exports to slide after revised forecast

Kazakhstan has revised its grain exports forecast for the 2008/2009 season to 5-5.5 million tonnes from 5.5-6 million tonnes, President Nursultan Nazarbayev said on Friday (October 6, 2008).

Central Asia's largest grain producer sees this year's crop at 15.1 million tonnes, down from last year's record 20.1 million tonnes.

Nazarbayev said that last year Kazakhstan exported 9 million tonnes of grain and this year they are looking at 5-5.5 million tonnes.

He did not say why the figure had been revised from the Agriculture Ministry's earlier estimates.