EDB publishes a report on grain policy in the CES and CIS
Saint Petersburg, 21 January 2013. The growth in average grain production in the past period places Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine among the leaders of the global grain market. For this reason a coordinated development policy is needed to demonstrate the maturity of the regional grain sector and become a driver for its further growth. This conclusion is made in the report CES+ Grain Policy prepared by Eurasian Development Bank’s (EDB) Centre for Integration Studies with the participation of the Grain Processing and Bread Making Union of Kazakhstan, the Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences, and the Russian Grain Union.
The report describes the approaches to the formulation of a coordinated policy for the development of the regional grain sector and recommends management innovations and proposals as to how improve grain production and exports.
In recent years the CES countries and Ukraine have become well-established players in the global grain market. Over the past five years Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine accounted for 36.3% of the global supplies of barley, 21.5%, of wheat, and 7.7% of corn. However, their positions in the global market still need to be strengthened and this is restrained by the incomplete reorganisation of the sector, the persisting problems in the sphere of grain transportation and trade, and the deficiencies of the agrarian policies.
«The grain sector with its high investment potential is one of the most promising sectors for the CES economies and Ukraine. If the three region’s net exporters modernise their grain sectors they will be able increase their nominal exports and share in the global trade. To this end, the need for coordinated efforts to develop the sector becomes increasingly important,» says Igor Finogenov, Chairman of the EDB Management Board.
An analysis has shown that the interrelation and interdependence between the grain sectors of the CIS leading producers (Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia and Belarus) and the global grain market have been growing since the beginning of the 2000s.
«Our countries become increasingly important players in the global food market and, in the first place, in the grain market. The roadmap proposed by the research, which is based on the principles of competition and the use of natural agricultural and climatic advantages of our countries, is a good basis for achieving an increase in our countries’ agricultural revenues and for making the CES+ countries guarantors of the global food security in seven to ten years,» emphasises Arkady Zlochevsky, President of the Russian Grain Union.
The innovations proposed by the report include the possible formation of several grain clusters (to cultivate rye, corn, grain for export and high-protein wheat), the geographic location of which will not match the existing national and administrative borders.
The recommendations for the grain sectors of the CES+Ukraine include the proposal to increase domestic grain consumption. To this end high-level grain processing should be developed in order to produce not only forage additives, the shortage of which is growing continuously with the development of animal breeding and is covered with imports from third countries, but also microbiological synthesis products, including biopolymers. The sustainable growth of the market in biopolymers will also foster the increase in new exports.
The CES+ grain policy is excepted to improve the structural sustainability, competitiveness and institutional maturity of the grain sectors of the CES and CIS and these are expected to promote socioeconomic development of the integrated region, as well as its food security and global trade.
The full version of the report is available at eabr.org/analytics/
Additional Information
Eurasian Development Bank is an international financial institution founded by Russia and Kazakhstan in January 2006 with the mission to facilitate the development of market economies, sustainable economic growth and the expansion of mutual trade and other economic ties in its member states. EDB’s charter capital exceeds US $1.5 billion. The member states of the Bank are the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Republic of Tajikistan. Read more at https://www.eabr.org.
The EDB Centre for Integration Studies was opened 2011. The Centre organises research and prepares reports and recommendations on regional economic integration. Read more about the Centre’s projects and publications at https://eabr.org/e/r/centreCIS/aboutCIS