In 2019, the Republic of Kazakhstan will continue reducing wheat production. According to expectations of VKZ-Agro LLP, the harvest will total 10.4 mln tonnes, against 13.6 mln tonnes in 2018, 14.5 mln tonnes in 2017, and 14.6 mln tonnes in 2016, reported the General Director at VKZ-Agro LLP, Alexander Malov, during his report within frames of the international conference "KazakhGrainExport 2019" in Istanbul, on September 19.
At the same time, the USDA analysts announced much more optimistic forecast of the Kazakh wheat harvest — 11.5 mln tonnes.
The main growing areas of wheat are located in the northern part of the country. The following three regions produce 80% of the general harvest of Kazakh wheat: Kostanay oblast — 25%, North Kazakhstan oblast — 30%, and Akmola oblast — 25%, the expert added.
According to A.Malov, in 2019/20 MY the exports of wheat from Kazakhstan reached the level of 6 mln tonnes, down over 2 mln tonnes compared with the same period last season.
For 5-6 recent years, Kazakhstan exported 70-80% of the general foreign supplies of wheat to Central Asia. Also, in the current MY Kazakhstan will supply nearly 33% of the general wheat shipments to Uzbekistan (35.2% in the season-2018/19), Afghanistan — 18% (21.2%), and Tajikistan — 17% (13.2%), the speaker said.