Grain exports update

Kazakhstan, which provides more than 90 per cent of Tajikistan’s grain imports, has pledged to lift a ban on grain exports on September 1.

Kazakhstan, which is world’s sixth biggest grain supplier, banned grain exports in April this year in an effort to contain soaring domestic food prices. Kazakhstan Segodnya (TCA) reported in August that announcing the decision to end the ban, the Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov said that as long as domestic grainKazakhstan will not introduce bans in future. supplies are guaranteed,

He stressed that in addition to meeting domestic requirements in grains it is also necessary to avoid rise in grain and flour prices.

The prime minister was cited as saying that the price should be so that the present status-quo on grain prices does not change.

“Prices on the domestic market should not fluctuate. If they fluctuate, don’t be offended but we will close everything,” Masimov said.

Kazakhstan warned that bumper harvests anticipated in Russia and Ukraine this year could clog transport routes it uses to access western grain markets.

Akylbek Kurishbaev, the Kazakh agriculture minister, said a surge in Russian and Ukrainian grain exports anticipated this autumn could prevent Kazakhstan from accessing Black Sea and Azov Sea ports and railway lines serving the ports.

Russia is expected to harvest 90 million tons of grain this year, 17 per cent more than in 2007, while Ukrainian production could jump by as much as 40 per cent to 40m tons, the minister said.

“As a result of intense grain loadings by Russian and Ukrainian traders between September and December, Black and Azov Seaexports,” he said. ports will be fully loaded until the new year, hindering Kazakh grain