Kazakhstan, Astana, April 2 / Trend D.Mukhtarov /
Kazakhstan in the current marketing year increased its grain exports to Georgia, President of Grain Union of Kazakhstan Nurlan Tleubayev said in an exclusive interview with Trend on Monday.
"If in the 2010-2011 marketing year, Kazakhstan supplied 194,000 tons of wheat to Georgia, during the first seven months of the current marketing year 372,000 tons of grain were supplied to, an increase of 200 percent," said Tleubayev, responding a question of Trend before the start of a videoconference Astana - Moscow - Kyiv on "Sowing campaign in 2012 and the harvest".
Head of the Grain Union of Kazakhstan said Georgia prior to the global financial crisis received grain as part of humanitarian aid from the EU and the U.S.
"After the financial crisis, these volumes have decreased, and Georgia also does not have relations with Russia. The only way to supply grain to Georgia is a Black Sea port of Poti, where Kazakh wheat comes", he said.
The head of the Grain Union of Kazakhstan said the republic in the 2011-2012 marketing year will be able to export grain in the amount of 13 million tons.
"We had a bumper crop last year. Seven months of our marketing year have passed, and we can say that for the 2011-2012 marketing year, we will ship for export nine million tons of wheat and another four million tons of flour - total, we will ship for export 13 million tons of wheat," he said.
Kazakhstan is among the largest exporters of grain on world markets. In 2011 the republic had a record harvest - nearly 27 million tons of grain in net weight. Earlier it was reported that Kazakhstan plans to export 15 million tons of grain in the 2011-2012 marketing year. In the marketing new year, according to preliminary estimates of Ministry of Agriculture, crop yields will be about 15 million tons.