Kazakhstan to expand grain storage facilities

Kazakhstan will construct more grain storage facilities, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Vice-Minister of Agriculture Muslim Umiryayev. "The plan is to expand the granaries by 1.5 million tons in 2012-2014, including 52.5 thousand tons for storage for seed of oil-bearing crops. 800 thousand tons of them will be expanded by KazAgroFinance at the expense of the national fund and additional 700 thousand tons will be acquired through ProdCorporation by means of construction, expansion and procurement of grain depots along the main directions of Kazakhstan's grain export,” Muslim Umityayev said. According to Vice-Minister the overall increase of the storage capacity will make 691 thousand tons this year, including 318 thousand tons at grain-collection stations and 373 thousand tons at agricultural producers' sites. According to him, Kazakhstan purchased 27,3 thousand units of agricultural equipment worth 278 billion tenge ($1.9 billion) in 2012, including 10.7 thousand units worth 123 billion tenge ($820 million) through KazAgroFinance. “Our agricultural producers currently have over 2,7 thousand highly-effective sowing machines, 14.7 thousand of harvester-threshers with straw shredders and 4.7 thousand water-efficient spraying machines,” the Vice-Minister added. Umiryayev also promised to expand Kazakhstan's fleet of grain-carrying wagons. Earlier deputy Prime-Minister Krymbek Kusherbayev called not to rely on grain export alone but to develop grain-processing. By Shynar Ospanova