Kazakhstan ships first grain to China's Shandong province

ASTANA. Sept 4 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan has shipped 1,300 tonnes of grain to Shandong Province in China as part of an agreement to supply an overall 200,000 tonnes, according to the Kazakh Agriculture Ministry.

"Today, a first shipment of 1,300 tonnes of Kazakh grain was sent from Almaty to the city Jinan in Shandong Province, China, on a new freight container train. This event marks the opening of the Shandong Center in Almaty at the Burundai station. Additionally, a memorandum was signed between the Food Corporation and Binzhou Zhongyu Foods to increase the supply of agricultural products. The memorandum includes an agreement to export 200,000 tonnes of Kazakh grain to China," the ministry said.

It did not provide details regarding the terms of delivery for Kazakh grain to China but said that Kazakhstan has a great opportunity to increase its annual grain supplies up to 1 million tonnes and also sell chilled meat products to China.

Kazakh Agriculture Minister Yerbol Karashukeyev said in June that the country had started exporting wheat to China. He also confirmed the signing of a contract to export 1 million tonnes of wheat to China. The minister said the shipment would consist of grain harvested this marketing year for now.

The minister said earlier that Kazakhstan planned to export 1 million tonnes of wheat to China, with the potential for future increases.

The export of Kazakh wheat to China was temporarily suspended in 2021 due to Covid-19 restrictions. For the 2022/2023 marketing year, Kazakhstan's Agriculture Ministry has set a target to export 9-9.5 million tonnes of grain and flour in grain equivalent.