On January 18, the Interdepartmental Commission held a meeting in Astana to discuss foreign trade policy and the potential supply of Kazakh corn to the markets of China and Iran, QazMonitor reports citing primeminister.kz.
During the meeting, the participants discussed supporting domestic production and market distribution of corn. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, in 2023, the sown areas allocated to this crop increased by 12.8 thousand hectares, reaching 193.8 thousand hectares compared to 180.9 thousand hectares in 2022. The harvest yielded 1,207.5 thousand tons of corn grain with an average yield of 65.8 centners/ha, an improvement from 57 centners/ha in 2022.
In addition to corn, the discussion covered the production of molasses. In 2021, the country produced 46.3 thousand tons of molasses, which increased to 57.3 thousand tons in 2022. In the first ten months of 2023, 40.7 thousand tons were produced.
Given the growing potential in processing, the government decided to discuss with domestic enterprises the possibility of increasing the share of Kazakh molasses in the production of confectionery and beverages. Currently, the total capacity of two domestic plants for the deep processing of corn is 210,000 tons per year.
