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Central Asia China Economy & Foreign Trade Issue

Kazakhstan Enters China’s Grain Market

During the Parliament-session of deputy group ‘Onir’ on Tuesday, Kazakhstan announced that it would begin exporting grain to China.

“I can report that 20 thousand tons of wheat has been exported to the Peoples Republic of China for the first time,” said Kazakhstan’s Vice-Premier Umirzak Shukeev during the meeting.

Earlier, during negotiations between Kazakhstan’s national corporation ‘Prodkorporatsija’ and China’s leading grain, oil, and food trading group COFCO, the ‘Prodkorporatsija’ stated their readiness to deliver around 150 thousand tons of high-quality wheat to the PRC market.

“The serious barrier to advancement of Kazakhstan grain to world markets is the absence of a direct transit route to seaports. The expense of transfer tariffs for each ton of grain rises approximately 50 dollars,” said Shukeev.

In this regard, the Kazakhstan government plans to initiate and complete export infrastructure construction including a railway grain terminal along the Kazakhstan – PRC border by 2013. The terminal will directly link Dostyk station (Kazakhstan territory) and Alashankou (Sintszjan-Uigur Independent Area, Northwest China). The single storage capacity of the terminal is put at one million tons of grain.

Shukeev also stated that the coordination of the project by governmental order has provided a direct means of reducing the transportation costs of the grain through China and this rate stands at 40 US$ per ton.

According to the ‘Kazakh-grain’ news agency, the country topped world wheat flour exports in 2007 and now maintains 6th place among the world’s largest grain exporters. Last year, the country’s share from the world’s total wheat flour export amount stood at 18 percent.

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