About 100,000 tonnes of Kazakh wheat will be exported through Ukrainian grain terminal Avlita in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol by the year-end, the terminal said in a statement on Friday. The first shipment of Kazakh wheat arrived at the terminal on November 7 by rail and the first Panamax-size vessel with 60,000 tonnes of wheat would be loaded and dispatched in the last 10 days of November.
Ukraine operates about 20 river and sea ports with total export capacity of about 3.5 million tonnes of grain per month. Avlita is able to export 3.5 million tonnes of grain per year. Kazakhstan, a leading Black Sea producer of top quality wheat, harvested a record 29.7 million tonnes of grain bunker weight in 2011 against 13.9 million in 2010.
But the landlocked country, which forecast the export of no less that 15 million tonnes in the 2011/12 season, need Russian or Ukrainian ports to ship its harvest to foreign markets. Kazakhstan exported 5.9 million tonnes of wheat and flour in the marketing year to June 30, 2011. It traditionally exports around 6 million tonnes to its closest markets in Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran and Azerbaijan.
Challenged by vast distances to ports on the Black and Baltic Seas, Kazakh wheat is often uncompetitive with Russian and Ukrainian grain. But to help overcome this disadvantage, the government is paying a $40 per tonne subsidy on rail shipments up to a total volume of 2.5 million tonnes this season. It is also leasing extra wagons to deliver the grain to port.
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