Kazakhstan’s Grain Union raises barley export forecast by 6% to 1.96 mln tonnesStrong demand from Iran is expected to boost Kazakhstan’s barley exports in the current marketing year (July 2024 to June 2025) to 1.96 million tonnes, according to Evgeny Karabanov, head of the analytics committee at Kazakhstan’s Grain Union."Given high demand and domestic market prices, we have raised our previous barley export forecast for 2024/25 by 110,000 tonnes to 1.96 million tonnes," Karabanov wrote in his Telegram channel.Earlier in May, the Grain Union had already revised its export forecast upward to 1.85 million tonnes from 1.75 million tonnes.According to data from the Grain Union, the republic doubled its barley exports this marketing year in the period of September 2024 to April 2025 to 1.7 million tonnes compared to 856,000 tonnes in the same period last year.Exports to Iran hit a four-year high, with shipments totaling 1.06 million tonnes in the period of September 2024 to April 2025, which is a sharp increase from 41,000 tonnes in the previous marketing year. Meanwhile, exports to China fell to 414,000 tonnes versus 645,000 tonnes a year earlier. Karabanov attributed this slowdown to unofficial export restrictions in China and Iran’s active purchases of Kazakh barley.April saw a slight decline in exports compared to March to 173,500 tonnes from 214,800 tonnes, which Karabanov described as a seasonal trend and a sign that "export potential is being exhausted."Domestic barley prices have surged to their highest levels since January 2023, reaching 87,000–91,000 tenge per tonne, driven by demand from China and Iran, he said.Meanwhile, barley imports - primarily from Russia - dropped to a four-year low, with only 60,000 tonnes imported this marketing year compared to 234,000 tonnes in the same period last year. (ICE ALMATY)

Fonte notizia: INTERFAX