The order of the Minister of Agriculture "On the introduction of a ban on the import of wheat into the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan by road" has been published on the portal of regulatory legal acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan. From that moment on, the ban officially came into force.
"To introduce a ban for a period of six months on the import of wheat (commodity nomenclature code of foreign economic activity of the Eurasian Economic Union: 100119; 100199) to the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan by road from third countries and from the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union," the document states.
The ban on wheat imports was introduced at the suggestion of market participants – farmers, traders, millers - due to the fact that most of the supplies of Russian wheat to Kazakhstan are smuggled without VAT. Imported grain is legalized through peasant farms and re-exported to Central Asia, reducing prices for legal Kazakh wheat. According to the data announced at the Eurasian Agricom conference on March 15-16, in the current marketing year, the total volume of deliveries from Russia has already exceeded 2 million tons.
However, this decision is criticized by small grain processors, who believe that it will put them in unequal conditions with large enterprises, since they do not have the opportunity to import grain by rail.