ASTANA, Kazakhstan, September 5. The first 1,300 tons of Kazakh grain left Almaty for the Chinese city of Jinan on a new freight container train, said the statement of the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan after the meeting between the Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Yerbol Karashukeyev, and the Secretary of the Communist Party Committee of the province of Shandong, Lin Wu, Trend reports.
This event also marked the inauguration of a new Shandong forming center at the Burundai station in Almaty.
In addition, plans to increase the supply of agricultural products were confirmed by the signing of a memorandum between the Food Corporation and Binzhou Zhongyu Foods. The document provides for the export of 200 thousand tons of domestic grain to China.
Shandong ranks fourth among the provinces in terms of trade with Kazakhstan after XUAR, Beijing, and Gansu province. Trade turnover amounted to $2 billion last year.
During the meeting, Karashukeyev expressed confidence that the figure could grow as Kazakhstan is ready to offer a wide range of high-quality agricultural products. Kazakhstan has the potential to increase the volume of its annual grain supplies to 1 million tons as well as sell chilled meat products to China.
From January through June 2023, the turnover of agricultural products between the Republic of Kazakhstan and China amounted to 578.5 million dollars, which is 72.7 percent more than in the same period in 2022. The main volume of Kazakh exports to China falls on grain crops and oil of various types; Kazakh imports are vegetables and nuts.