OREANDA-NEWS. October 20, 2008. Among those in attendance were members of the Government, representatives of Kazakhstan’s national companies, and regional governors’ vices, reported the Official website http://en.government.kz.

At the Government’s House in Astana, Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Karim Massimov presided over his government sitting on grain export policy and bread grain availability at the internal market.

Among those in attendance were members of the Government, representatives of Kazakhstan’s national companies, and regional governors’ vices.

Agriculture Minister Akhylbek Kurishkeev reported that according to the first data, the overall grain harvest made up 17.3 million tons in bunker weight.

Gross grain harvest is expected to reach 17.5 million tons; this will enable to fully meet the domestic demand and export around 5.5-6 million tons.

According to A. Kurishbayev, all the country regions that have to rely on other areas in terms of grain supply had signed respective memoranda with grain-producing areas well in advance.

Besides, the Food Corporation has established so-called stabilization grain pools totaling 600000 tons.

“Work is under way to effectively use these grain pools to stabilize prices for flour and bread”, the Minister emphasized.

When tallying up the results, the Prime Minister noted that “the efforts of the Government coupled with those of national companies, private sector and the Grain Union have brought forth positive results”.

“The main task set by the President – that is the task of preventing unjustified hikes of prices for basic foodstuffs (grain and bread) – has been accomplished”, the Prime Minister said.

“We can assert that the Government guarantees availability of grain throughout the forthcoming year and that prices for bread will not be growing: we have all the stabilization mechanisms in place”, K. Massimov said.

“In this context we can officially declare that we will not be introducing bans on grain exports”, closed the Prime Minister.