Kazakhstan’s national company “Prodcorporation” is eploring the possibility of supplying up to 500,000 tons of food-grade wheat to Israel via Azerbaijan and Georgia.
According to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Agriculture, the announcement was made by Samat Tenbayev, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Prodcorporation, during a meeting of the Kazakhstan-Israel Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation in Jerusalem.
Tenbayev noted that Kazakhstan is steadily strengthening its position in the international agricultural market by epanding the geographical reach of its agricultural eports. Currently, the country eports agricultural products to more than 80 countries worldwide, with particular focus on developing trade relations with Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
This year’s high crop yields have created additional opportunities to epand grain eports. Kazakhstan has substantial volumes of food-grade wheat with high protein and gluten content, which is in demand on international markets and of interest to Israeli processing facilities.
“Taking into account the needs of the Israeli market, Prodcorporation is ready to consider the possibility of concluding long-term contracts for the supply of 200,000 to 500,000 tons of food-grade wheat and other agricultural products,” Tenbayev said.
At the same time, logistics remains one of the key challenges to further epanding eports. As potential routes for delivering Kazakh products to Israeli partners, the company proposed considering the transport corridor passing through Azerbaijan and Georgia, as well as alternative routes via Baltic Sea ports.
The potential for cooperation is underpinned by the size of Israel’s grain market. The country imports more than 2 million tons of wheat annually.