Azerbaijan, Baku, March 16 / Trend E. Kosolapova/
The Kazakh National Company Food Contract Corporation plans to increase grain purchase prices up to 23,000 tenge ($156) per ton from April, company's Chairman Beybithan Kabdrakhmanov said, Novosti-Kazakhstan reported.
"We are implementing monitoring, analysis, perhaps in early April, or in mid-April, we will raise the [grain purchase] price up to 23,000 tenge per ton," Kabdrakhmanov said at the Fifth Grain Forum on Friday.
Kabdrakhmanov said that the Food Corporation is ready to buy as much grain as farmers want sell. Current grain purchase price makes up 21,000 tenge ($142) per ton.
Kazakhstan is one of the world's largest grain exporters. In 2011 Kazakhstan collected almost 27 million tons of grain in net weight. This is a record grain harvest within the years of independence. Eight million tons of grain harvest will be used for domestic consumption. Export potential is estimated at 15 million tons. The Food Contract Corporation purchase grain to stabilize the market and prevent grain price fall.
At the same time the Kazakh government is considering the proposal to increase the subsidy for grain transportation up to $40-50 per ton, the general director of the Kazakh Grain Company affiliated to Glencore International AG Sergei Potapov said.
"In our opinion, the subsidies should be allocated until the grain market has stabilized completely. We offer the Government to increase the export subsidies up to $40-50 per ton to ensure the competitiveness of Kazakh wheat on the world market," Potapov said.
Currently, state subsidies for grain transportation make up $27 per ton. In 2011 the Government allocated 15 million tenge ($102,000) to subside grain transportation through Russia's and China's territory.