Kazakhstan’s Agriculture Minister Asylzhan Mamytbekov lowered the country’s grain export forecast to 7 million metric tons from 8 million tons as the harvest declined due to drought.

Grain shipments won’t be limited, Mamytbekov said today in the capital Astana.

“The export pace is normal, as it was planned,” Mamytbekov said. Monthly exports are forecast to be about 400,000 to 500,000 tons a month, he said.

Kazakhstan’s grain crop is expected to be about 12 million tons after drying and cleaning, according to the ministry’s Oct. 16 forecast, in which its grain shipment estimate was cut from an earlier target of 10 million tons.

Last year, the crop was a record 26.9 million tons, according to the ministry.

Kazakhstan has sufficient grain to meet domestic and export demand when this year’s harvest is added to the 9.8 million tons of grain left from last year, Yevgeny Aman, the ministry’s executive secretary, said Oct. 16.

Bloomberg