The Food Corporation signed a memorandum with the Chinese industrial group Xi'an Ai Ju on expanding cooperation in the processing and export of Kazakh agricultural products to China. The agreement provides for the production of food and feed flour, vegetable oil and other products from Kazakh grain in the North Kazakhstan region, which will then be sent to Chinese buyers, the press service of the Food Corporation reported.
In April, the Food Corporation already shipped a trial batch of grain in the amount of 10 thousand tons to a plant owned by the Chinese group in the North Kazakhstan region. Now the parties intend to develop a long-term partnership and increase the volume of grain and oilseed supplies to 200 thousand tons.
“Domestic food products are already widely represented in supermarkets in the city of Xi'an and are in demand among the local population. In order to ensure stable grain supplies to processing sites, the national grain operator is considering the possibility of attracting agricultural producers to this project,” the Food Corporation reported.
The national company signed another memorandum in Xi'an with the operator of the international dry port of Changba (Xi'an). This logistics hub provides rail deliveries to 45 countries in Asia and Europe. The Chinese side expressed interest in expanding container and multimodal transportation with the participation of Kazakhstani companies.
As noted by the Food Corporation, the agreements reached open up new opportunities for promoting Kazakhstani products abroad, in particular, to the markets of Southeast Asia.
To ensure flexibility of supplies, the Food Corporation is also developing alternative export routes. In particular, on the sidelines of the international conference on rail transportation "China - Europe", the prospects for increasing grain transit through the port of Baku in the direction of the Black Sea and Turkey were discussed. An additional analysis is being conducted of the potential for using the infrastructure of the Baku Grain Terminal for transshipment.