Kazakhstan will reduce grain exports due to lower yields, Agriculture Minister Aidarbek Saparov said.
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"Our export potential will, of course, decrease due to lower yields," Saparov said at a press conference on Tuesday.
"However, the volume of grain we plan to export will also be sufficient to maintain our position in traditional export markets," he said.
The export forecast for the 2023/2024 agricultural year (July-June) is 6 million tonnes, Saparov said. "We plan to export about 6 million tonnes, about 1.2 million tonnes of flour, maybe up to 1.5 million tonnes," he said.
Nearly 7 million tonnes of grain have been exported from last year's harvest since the beginning of this year, the minister said.
Kazakh farmers expect to harvest about 16 million tonnes of grain in 2023, Saparov said.
"Today, the forecast for the grain harvest is about 16 million tonnes, plus 3 million in carryover stocks. A total of 19 million tonnes," he said, emphasizing that these volumes make it possible to completely cover Kazakhstan's internal needs and preserve its traditional export markets.
As of September 19, Kazakhstan's farmers have harvested 6.9 million hectares of grain and leguminous crops, which is 40% of the planted area.
Last week it was reported that there are growing risks of deterioration in the quality of grain from the new harvest in Kazakhstan due to unfavorable weather.
The harvest in Kazakhstan in 2022 was 22 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops, and the wheat harvest reached 16.4 million tonnes.
As reported, the initial Agriculture Ministry forecast assumed export of up to 9.5 million tonnes of grain and flour in grain equivalent in the 2022/2023 agricultural year (July-June). In March of this year, the export forecast was reduced to 9.4 million tonnes.
In the 2021/2022 agricultural year, Kazakhstan exported 9.1 million tonnes of grain and flour in grain equivalent. ■
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