Kazakhstan to Expand Grain Exports to China, EU and North Africa

Photo: Eurasianet

President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called transport and logistics restrictions as the major barriers for exporting agricultural products.

Addressing the 1st Agriculture Workers’ Forum in Astana, the Kazakh leader stated the importance of developing infrastructure for storing agricultural products, including grain elevators, vegetable and fruit storage facilities, The Caspian Post reports, citing Kazakh media.

“For example, our country faces significant losses of agricultural produce due to the shortage of logistics and storage systems. Therefore, it’s necessary to develop infrastructure for storing agricultural products, including grain elevators, vegetable and fruit storage facilities,” stated the Kazakh President.

Head of State Tokayev highlighted that the country adopted the comprehensive plan for constructing and upgrading storage facilities, adding an additional 700,000 tons to its total agricultural storage capacity.

This work requires constant control. We need to preserve our traditional export destinations as well as diversify the export, creating flexible patterns of supply, adapted to meet the demands of any country. Planned deliveries of grain have already begun to Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan. Access to Iran’s market was regained, with 250,000 tons of barley already shipped. Grain shipments are expected to China, the countries of the EU and North Africa. The new grain terminal at the Kuryk port was launched to enhance maritime transport. Amid the increasing demand for food in new markets, the North-South and Trans-Caspian Route corridors will be of even greater importance, said Tokayev.

The Kazakh leader stated that for the past few years, the issue of addressing the strategic task of turning Kazakhstan into a full-fledged transport and logistics center of Eurasia has been one of the crucial ones of international agenda during talks.

“Easy access to those corridors is of paramount importance in this issue as well as betterment of internal logistics. Therefore, we are to carry out a large-scale modernization of the railroad network in the next six years. It’s planned to repair 11,000 and build over 5,000km of railroad,” said the Head of State.