August 14 2003, 15:24

Grain crop in Kazakhstan can be 26 pc lower than last year

Kazakhstan's grain crop this year may be 26 percent down from that of 2002, President of Kazakhstan's Union of Grain Processors and Bread Bakers Evgeniy Gan has told Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency. He said, according to his forecast the country would harvest 12 million tonnes of grain in final weight against 16.2 million tonnes in 2002. In 2001 the country harvested 15.9 million tonnes of grain in final weight.

Evgeniy Gan grounds his forecast by unfavourable weather conditions in the country this spring and summer. He thinks that, noting for the expected decrease in grain crop, this year it will not be possible to deter the price growth for bread and flour without state regulation. High grain prices are affecting the flour and bread prices. According to his data, the current price per tonne of 3rd class soft milling wheat is around $100 on an EXW basis, against $70-75 per tonne in spring and in the beginning of summer.

This year cereal crops in Kazakhstan have been sown on 13.810 million hectares against 13.953 million hectares in 2002.