The export potential of the Kazakh grain yield of 2011 will exceed ten million tons, Kazakh Minister of Agriculture Asylzhan Mamytbekov said at a meeting of the Kazakh government on Tuesday, Itar-Tass reported.
"Not counting the amount of grain, needed for meeting the domestic demand of Kazakhstan, we expect the export potential to exceed ten million tons," he said.
The main task of the state is to organise grain export. According to Mamytbekov, the traditional importers of Kazakh grain - the Central Asian countries, Afghanistan and Iran - "can import some six million tons so far. The rest of the grain should be exported to the Baltic region and the Black Sea countries."
According to his information, five billion tenge (34 million dollars) will be allocated from the budget in 2011 and ten billion tenge (68 million dollars) will be allocated in 2012 for organising grain exports.
"Measures have been envisaged for subsidising transport expenditures during the export of Kazakh grain across Russia, to China and across China to other countries," he continued. "Railway tariffs are being reduced, which permits to export our grain to the ports of the Baltic, Azov and Black Sea regions."
Mamytbekov reminded that the Kazakh government had taken similar measures in 2009 for organising grain exports, but this year state support will be greater.
Minister of Transport and Communication Berik Kamaliyev said that, in order to ensure grain transportation, the national railway company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (Kazakh Railways) leased from Russian companies 5,500 special railway carriages for grain transportation. "Aside from it, Kazakh Temir Zholy and Rusagrotrans are planning to create a joint enterprise before the end of the year, to be named Astyktrans," Kamaliyev continued. According to his information, the joint enterprise will make it possible to resolve the problem of rolling stock for grain transportation.
According to the information of the Kazakh Ministry of Agriculture, grain has been harvested in Kazakhstan on 79 per cent of farm lands. 20.2 million tons of grain have been threshed. According to forecasts, this year's grain yield will be the greatest in Kazakhstan in the past 60 years and will amount to some 25 million tons.
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