Kazakhstan grain collapsed in price, farmers suffer losses

Kazakhstani grain is not in demand and is losing value. Domestic wheat can not compete with Russian wheat in value and is not in demand. Traders are now buying soft wheat at 80 thousand tenge per ton, a price that does not cover the costs of farmers, the World of NAN reports citing Atameken Business.

Back in the fall, Kostanay wheat was selling for an average of 120 thousand tenge per ton. And when the food corporation announced the price of purchase, depending on the class from 115 to 123 thousand tenge, the farmers were not happy. However, now there is a stable downward trend in the price of wheat on the grain market: by the beginning of March, the price per ton has fallen by 7%.

"Traders who buy wheat from us, they tell us about the idle wagons, about the lack of fleet, that is, we are collecting all the stories, we already know everything that is happening in the world. Because all this is reflected in the price. And at the moment the prices are very dismal. They offer a price of 80 thousand tenge", - says the head of the farm Svetlana Mikhailenko.

Such a cost of grain, according to the agrarians, does not allow them to cover the costs of cultivation against the background of the rising cost of agricultural machinery and chemicals for the fields. For example, the price of the popular combine harvester K-700 has gone up by 212% and the price of imported herbicides has gone up by 40% over the past two years.

"To date, the grain of our producers here in the country is not needed. No one needs it, everyone imports it from Russia. A loaf of bread is 300 tenge, the price supposedly fell, but why then the retail price is not dropping? Everyone is blaming agriculture for the high cost of food," said Marat Akhmetov, chairman of the Kostanay branch of the Association of Farmers of Kazakhstan.

Indeed, according to official statistics, despite the decreasing cost of grain, the price of bread in Kostanay over the past two months has not changed: by the end of February it is 167 tenge per kg of bread of the first variety. Farmers are complaining, they say, as producers, they incur losses, and they are blamed for the expensive products. To compensate the costs to farmers the government could provide subsidies, but only in Kostanay region the debt on payments is about 14 billion tenge.

"We were promised that in December there will be a redistribution of funds from other non-utilized programs, and it would be allocated additionally. But we didn't see any of this, on the contrary, the debt has increased even more," said agricultural producer Vladimir Dranchuk.

According to the FAO, in January the world wheat prices fell by 2.5%, as the production in Australia and Russia was higher than previously predicted. Experts say there are all preconditions for a further decline in grain prices, as the world economy is approaching recession, which reduces the demand for agricultural products.

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