Kazakhstan to export 7 million tons of grain in 2013

Kazakhstan may export 7 million tons of grain in 2013, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Kazakhstan Agriculture Minister Assylzhan Mamytbekov. “We are estimating our potential for this year’s grain export at 7 million tons. This is a little lower than the average volume and much lower than the amount exported during last marketing year, when we exported 12.8 million tons,” Mamytbekov said. According to him, Kazakhstan has already exported around 3.3 million tons of grain since the beginning of this marketing year. He also added that there would be no big supplies of grain to Russia. “We see that Russia is self-sufficient in terms of grain, that’s why, to our regret, no big grain supplies are expected to Russia. We do not preclude some supplies, but those will be to the near-border regions. Russia is a major exporter itself. Our traditional market is to the south,” the Minister added. By Baubek Konyrov