Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 21
By Nigar Guliyeva - Trend:
Kazakhstan has recorded a sharp drop in demand for potatoes from Uzbekistan.
The Kazakh Agriculture Ministry reported that demand from Uzbekistan has sharply declined since October 2017 due to the beginning of harvesting season in Uzbekistan itself .
The total export of potatoes from Kazakhstan amounted to 107,400 tons worth $17.4 million for the period January-August 2017. Of the total volume 76,000 tons accounted for the harvest of last year.
despite the decline, Uzbekistan remained the main export direction, which imported 106,600 tons worth $17.3 million.
In January-May local agrarians sold more than 78,500 tons of potato to Uzbekistan, which is 1.5 times more than the volume export to the countries outside the EEA.
In the first 5 months of 2017, potato exports brought Kazakhstan $ 13.4 million. the export volume was 79,400 tons of potatoes, including to Tajikistan - 580 tons, Turkmenistan - 159 tons and the rest to Uzbekistan.
As of October 20, 2017, 99.8% of the sown area was harvested, and 3.5 million tons of potatoes were harvested, which is at the level of the gross harvest in 2016.
In 2017, according to local executive bodies, the sown area of potatoes was 179,600 hectares, which is 1,600 hectares less than in the previous year.
The Statistics Committee of the Ministry reported that harvesting volume for 2016 and 2015 were about 3.5 million tons.
However, despite the decrease in demand from Uzbekistan, retail prices for potatoes continued to grow and the price index from October 1 to October 17 this year. was 118.7%.
The statistics show that producer prices from June to September were at the level of 49 tenge per kilogram, while retail prices decreased from 162 tenge per kilogram to 99 tenge per kilogram. In the same period of 2016, producer prices fell from 47 to 45 tenge per kilogram, retail prices dropped from 106 to 81 tenge per kilogram.
The official exchange rate for October 21 is 335.24 KZT / USD.