According to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Aidarbek Saparov, 16.7 million hectares of cereals were sown in Kazakhstan this year. Harvesting is 99.7% complete, and 26.5 million tons of grain have been threshed. Kazakhstan plans to export about 12 million tons of the new harvest to traditional markets—the countries of Central Asia and Afghanistan—and new ones, such as Pakistan, Indonesia, Brazil, and Malaysia.
At a government meeting on October 23, Deputy Minister of Trade and Integration Kairat Torebayev
reported that Kazakhstan’s export potential for cereals is estimated at 12 million tons, including 7-7.5 million tons of wheat, 1.4 million tons of barley, and 300,000 tons of corn.Torebayev stated that in 2023, Kazakhstan exported 1.43 million tons of cereals to China, marking a 5.5-fold increase over the previous year. Wheat exports alone surged to 538,800 tons, representing nearly a 15-fold increase compared to 2022.
Torebayev said Kazakhstan could increase its wheat exports to China and other Asian countries to 1.6 million tons, adding that its export potential to Turkey and Middle Eastern countries is almost 1 million tons.
Preliminary agreements have been reached on the export of 600,000 tons of wheat to Armenia and 1 million tons to Italy. Negotiations on exporting 200,000 tons of grain to North African countries are underway.
According to APK-Inform, in the 2022/23 grain season, Kazakhstan exported more than 7.3 million tons of wheat, a record-high volume for the last few seasons. Uzbekistan remained the primary importer of Kazakh grain, followed by Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and China.
In 2022, Kazakhstan’s wheat exports totaled $1.91 billion, making it the 11th largest wheat exporter globally.
