The Food Corporation signed a memorandum with the Chinese company Shandong Hi-Speed Qilu Eurasia Railway Express Co. Ltd., providing for expanded supplies of grain, feed, and oilseed crops from Kazakhstan to China. Specifically, a contract farming model will be implemented, which involves purchasing crops from farmers during the sowing season. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan.
The memorandum was signed in Shanghai during a visit by a Kazakh delegation led by Minister of Agriculture Aidarbek Saparov. During talks with representatives of the General Administration of Customs of China and a Chinese logistics company, opportunities for increasing export volumes by utilizing the railway infrastructure of Shandong Province were discussed. Special attention was paid to customs cooperation, logistics, and joint processing of products.
"Kazakhstan has the potential to export up to 3-4 million tons of grain and feed meal to the Chinese market annually. The most promising area today is the production of feed meal. "We invite Chinese partners to cooperate not only on transportation but also on joint production projects. We also propose considering containerized grain transportation, which has already proven its effectiveness," noted Aidarbek Saparov.
As representatives of Shandong Hi-Speed Qilu Eurasia Railway Express noted, Shandong Province is one of the leading regions for the consumption and processing of agricultural products.
"We have experience implementing international projects, including in African countries. During previous meetings, we discussed the possibility of combining efforts in the supply chain, from procurement and transportation to sales. We expect to increase supply volumes and, in the future, reach 500,000 tons of imported grain from Kazakhstan," said the company representative.
The parties agreed to form a working group in the near future to coordinate further steps, including logistics, customs procedures, development of the production base, and the execution of new contracts.