Into January, grain reserves in Kazakhstan still exceed the reserves of previous years. Over the past 7 years at the beginning of the year, only in 2012 the remains of grain on January 1 were higher than in the current year. Such high reserves, almost 20.5 million tonnes, were then formed as a result of a record harvest of 2011 at about 27 million tonnes. Taking into account the transportation and storage infrastructure of grain, which was at that time in a worse condition than now, it was an emergency in those years.
At that time, the problem of congestion was caused by subsidising the transportation of Kazakh grain abroad. "We had allocated 15 billion tenge to reduce the cost of transportation costs for grain exports to the Russian Federation and China. It turned out that by the end of March this money had been fully spent, meaning that the planned volume of 2.5 million tonnes had been fully transported," Lyazzat Kupanova, Deputy Director of the Agriculture Department, said at a briefing in the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
"But to reduce stocks these measures were not enough. Considering that we had a record harvest last year, the amount of grain left unrealized will put pressure on the market and create a problem for ensuring the safety of the new crop. Now, to stimulate the advancement of our grain to international markets, it is expected that this support will continue," the representative of the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan added.
This year the difference in absolute and relative terms has increased. If in December 2017 carryover reserves stood at 1,073,169 tonnes, an increase of 106.5%, as of January 1, 2018, they amounted to 1,354,978 tonnes, or 109.1%. The increase in grain reserves in Kazakhstan has become a constant phenomenon since 2015. Over the last year, the increase gained omentum. Between January 2015 and 2016, the difference was 645,077 tonnes, between January 2016 and 2017 1,019,012 tonnes, and now between January 2017 and the outlook for 2018 the increase can be expected to reach 1,354,978 tonnes. Undoubtedly, good yields of grain crops in the past and the year before last contributed to this important factor.
On December 1, Kazakhstan had stored 17,710,481 tonnes of grain, a decrease from November by 2,297,992 tonnes or 11.5%. As of January 1, according to the Committee on Statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 16,174,007 tonnes of grain were accounted for, a decrease from December 1, 2017 to January 1, 2018 as a result of domestic consumption, exports, reflation and losses by 1,536,474 tonnes or 8.7%.
By Sergey Bukatov for Zerno Kazakhstan.
