The expensive supply of Kazakh grain to Georgia by rail is creating
doubts about the construction of a grain terminal in one of the
country’s ports, managing director on external economic activities of
Prodkorporatsiya, Daulet Uvashov, told VK.
He said that the expense of exporting grain through Georgia comes from
high railroad tariffs in Russia, Azerbaijan and Georgia itself.
Moreover, he added that another problem is the location of the
terminal: the port is not deep enough for ships with high dead-weight.
Their partner and consumer is Egypt, a country that buys large
instalments using heavy-duty ships, Uvashov said.
VK reported earlier that Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze
said that the delegation of Kazakh specialists is expected to
calculate the expediency of the grain terminal construction.
“We will also visit Ukraine, which has approximately 20 ports, and we
will calculate all the pros and cons: land price, port depth etc. The
same calculations will be made for land purchase and grain terminal
construction in Russia”, Uvashov noted.
At the end of last year the Minister of Agriculture Akylbek
Kurishbayev, addressing Premier Karim Masimov, stated that Kazakhstan
needs to build grain terminals on the Black Sea to gain access to new
markets.
