Kazakhstan’s Wheat Import to China

In recent years, Kazakhstan became one of the major grain and wheat exporter. International Grain Council forecasts, that country’s 2020-2021 exports of wheat flour, will sum up to 2,5 million tonnes. Such a prediction, states commodity export half a million tonne more, year-over-year. Wheat production is forecasted to grow by over two million tonnes in 2020-2021, comparing to 11,4 million tonnes the previous year. 2019 crop was affected by draughts, and from that point, agriculture output is seemingly increasing.

Export limitation

As a response to the COVID-19 threat, the government of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev limited the export of particular commodities. The grain export quota for April was set for 200,000 tonnes a month, while wheat flour was limited up to 70,000 t/m. Due to the manufacturer’s protests, limitations had to be abolished. On 13 May 2020, the Ministry announced the abolition of export quotas starting from June 2020. In total, Kazakhstan in the 2020-2021 marketing year exported 648,800 tonnes of wheat excluding flour in grain equivalent.

Recovery

Despite some hiccups as mentioned safety measures and last year’s draughts, the Kazakstan government is planning to recover their harvest and exports. Recently the Ministry of Agriculture claimed their foreseen grain export to China to tot up to 8 million tones of grains in the current marketing year, as the country’s monthly wheat imports significantly increased. In June 2020, wheat imports grew by 197%, comparing to July 2019, reaching 910,000 tons. Such an increase is dictated by the need for domestic food secure, as COVID-19, showed how important is to be supplied ahead.