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Home / Bioethanol / News Kazakhstan in strong position despite under-performing harvestKazakhstan in strong position despite under-performing harvest During a regular weekly meeting of the Kazakhstan cabinet in the capital Astana, Kurishbayev announced that the country has enough grain to feed its people and keep prices stable. But that should have been no surprise in a country that is emerging, despite last years harvest shortfall, as the key grain, especially wheat, swing producer for the entire former Soviet region. The real question is why Kurishbayev felt the need to say it at all. The reason is that the countrys 2010 grain harvest has come in below original estimates. Kurishbayev said that on January 1 the country held reserves of 9.3 million tons of grain, including 2.6 million kept in a stabilization fund guaranteed to be sold only at fixed prices. Kurishbayev said that these reserves were enough to guarantee the needs of the countrys domestic market and of its rapidly growing export markets, Gazeta.kz reported. The agriculture minister also confirmed that production of vegetable oil and cereals was sufficient in 2010 to satisfy the demands of domestic consumption. Gazeta.kz also reported that shops and supermarket chains across the nation of 16 million people currently had supplies of 900,000 tons of potatoes, 150,000 tons of carrots and 100,000 tons of onions on hand. All of which are sufficient to meet demand until the next harvest. Kurishbayev also cited Kazakhstans Agency of Statistics as confirming that in 2010, the country harvested 13.4 tons of grain. But this was a significant reduction on the previous estimate of a grain harvest of 15.3 million tons. In 2010, Kazakhstan also sold abroad 9.7 million tons of grain, of which 5.07 million tons came from previous harvests stored in granaries and 4.6 million tons came directly from the 2010 harvest, Kurishbayev said. These figures were around 40 percent down from the record-breaking 2009 harvest that produced 25 million tons of grain. As Kurishbayev said, the figures he announced are cause for relief, not alarm. But their drop from the more optimistic projected figures explain why he felt the need to reassure the Kazakh public that prices would not rise and supplies would still be on hand. The fact remains, however, that the overall grain production figures from the 2010 harvest are down, and the government of Kazakhstan is acting cautiously as a result. Daulet Uvashev, managing director of the Foreign Economic Activity department of the Food Contract Corporation announced on Wednesday, the day after the agriculture ministers statement, that while the government would still release grain to be exported through private companies, its own national grain company would not do so and would focus on maintaining supplies for the domestic market in 2011, the APK-Inform Information Agency reported. This is despite the strengthening of Kazakhstans grain exporting market position resulting from the 2011 drought. As Central Asia Newswire (CAN) has previously reported, Russia was forced to halt grain exports at least until June 30, 2011 to ensure domestic supply as a result of the drought. It is now importing barley to feed livestock from Kazakhstan, as well as maize from Ukraine. Kazakhstan has also replaced Russia as the main grain supplier to Azerbaijan, and is exporting large quantities of grain to Egypt and Iran, which are both traditional grain exporters. And despite the harvest shortfall, 2010 saw a potentially enormous breakthrough for Kazakh agriculture. Uvashev said the country started to sell grain to China, and through China to South Korea and other Asian nations on the Pacific Rim. Uvashev also said that over the next three years, from 2011 through 2013, Kazakhstans Food Contract Corporation would invest heavily in constructing a new grain export infrastructure to supply China on a regular and large-scale basis with grain. He called the new project, Building the grain railway terminal on the border of China. So despite the Kazakh governments feeling that it needed to reassure its population that it will have enough to eat, the country appears to be in a strong position to meet its domestic needs and continue its aggressive export plans
Date: 15.01.2011 Leave your comment
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