The Interdepartmental Commission of Kazakhstan on Foreign Trade Policy and Participation in Economic Organizations has decided to ban the export of onions for 3 months. The decision was made to prevent the mass export of onions from Kazakhstan and stabilize onion prices, EastFruit specialists report with reference to the Kazinform International News Agency.
“The rush demand of third countries for Kazakh onions is associated with natural disasters in Pakistan, one of the largest onion producers in Asia and globally. Floods in Pakistan caused a global increase in prices for onions, including in the market of our republic. There is additional pressure on prices from severe frosts in the southern regions of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, where a large part of the harvest was damaged. The main onion producers are now actively importing Kazakh onions,” the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan explained.
Read also: Kazakhstan may limit onion exports
According to the Bureau of National Statistics of Kazakhstan, in 2022, the onion harvest in the country amounted to 1.1 million tonnes, while the annual domestic consumption in the country is about 315 000 tonnes, i.e. almost 3.5 times less.
The confirmed stocks of onions in Kazakhstan amount to 152 400 tonnes, or only 14% of the total volume of last year’s harvest. This is enough until the next harvest, so the export restrictions eliminate the risks of exporting all the remaining onions from Kazakhstan.
We remind you that EastFruit experts considered restrictions or a ban on the export of onions from Kazakhstan as an option for what might happen in the onion market in neighboring Uzbekistan. A quite predictable consequence will be a sharp rise in onion prices in Uzbekistan, although analysts of the international project believe it is still difficult to forecast the exact price rise. Read about this in the article “Extreme frosts destroyed onion stocks in Uzbekistan forcing it to import.”
The use of the site materials is free if there is a direct and open for search engines hyperlink to a specific publication of the East-Fruit.com website.
