Kazakhstan to export 2.5 mln tonnes of grain through Black, Baltic Seas this year
ASTANA. Nov 3 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan may export 2.5 million tonnes of grain through the Black and the Baltic Seas this marketing year (July 2011-June 2012), the country's Agriculture Minister Asylzhan Mamytbekov said.
"Today we are working closely with the national railway company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy. In October we shipped 1.2 million tonnes of grain, of which 600,000 tonnes were exported. We plan to raise the export volume to 800,000 tonnes in November and to 1 million tonnes in December. To meet the objectives, we are providing incentives to exports through the Black and the Baltic Seas. About 2.5 million tonnes of grain will be exported through those routes," Mamytbekov said at a plenary session of the parliament on Thursday.
"I believe we are bound for an exporting record," he said.
Kazakh grain exports to China will be maintained at their previous level, he said.
"Last year we exported around 50,000 tonnes of grain to China, and this year roughly at the same volume, maybe a little more," Mamytbekov said.
Prodcorporation (the Kazakh operator of grain purchases in state reserve) has said that Kazakhstan plans to export around 3 million tonnes of grain to China in the 2011-2012 marketing year.
Mamytbekov said Kazakhstan could export up to 15 million tonnes of grain this marketing year. Kazakhstan exported 5.9 million tonnes of grain last year.
Kazakhstan has reaped a record grain harvest of 29.5 million tonnes in bunker weight this year.