Kazakhstan harvested new record level of grain in 2011

ASTANA. November 8. KAZINFORM Kazakhstan, the world's seventh-largest wheat exporter, has increased its own forecast for this year's grain exports to 15 million tonnes, according to Kazakhstan Vice Minister of Agriculture Marat Tolibayev. Earlier the Ministry projected exports at the level of 10 million tonnes.

Kazakhstan authorities have been officially forecasting a grain crop of between 22-23 million tonnes by clean weight this year, although the Ministry's recent data suggests the harvest could be even bigger. As of the end of October the country harvested grains throughout 99.7 percent of the planned areas, and produced 29.3 million tonnes of grain in bunker weight, which surpassed the benchmark of 22.7 million tonnes of grain harvested in 2008. It is the highest record since the country gained independence in 1991, the News Bulletin of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the US reads.

Traditionally, bunker weight is approximately 10 percent higher than clean weight (after the grain is cleaned and dried). Therefore, this suggests that the crop could be even higher than forecasts, exceeding 26 million tonnes. According to Minister of Agriculture Asylzhan Mamytbekov, the clean weight of the harvested crop would not be known until mid-November.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture also revised their forecast of wheat exports from Kazakhstan in 2011, increasing projections by 13.3 percent The forecast of wheat production increased accordingly, by 18.8 percent, - to 19 million tonnes.

This year Kazakhstan agrarians have sown 16.2 million hectares to grain, an area roughly the same size as Florida or Wisconsin. This area includes 13.8 million hectares sown to wheat. The record harvest of 29.3 million tonnes of grain already surpassed the standing post-Soviet record of 20.8 million tonnes reached by Kazakhstan in 2009. In 2010, however, the country harvested only 12.2 million tonnes of grain because of the drought.

Kazakhstan traditionally exports wheat to its closest markets in Central Asia, Afghanistan, Eastern Europe and Azerbaijan. Between June 30, 2010 and June 30, 2011, the country exported 5.9 million tonnes of wheat and flour. In order to compete with Russian and Ukrainian grain and deliver domestic production to the ports on the Black and Baltic Seas, the Government pays a subsidy, which is approximately a $40 per tonnes.