Kazakhstan’s wheat and flour exports lose momentum in May despite record season
Kazakhstan exported 538,200 tonnes of wheat and 150,200 tonnes of wheat flour in May 2026, down 24% and 29% from April. Despite the monthly slowdown, nine-month shipments remained above the previous season, while feed flour exports reached a record.
May shipments retreat from April
Kazakhstan exported 538,200 tonnes of soft and durum wheat in May 2026, according to data from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics cited by the Grain Union of Kazakhstan. The volume was 24% below April and 15% below May of the 2024/25 marketing year. It was the first month of the current marketing year in which wheat exports fell below the corresponding level of the previous season.
Wheat flour exports also slowed sequentially. May shipments fell 29% from April to 150,200 tonnes, although they remained 41% above the level recorded a year earlier. Purchases declined to 94,400 tonnes for Afghanistan, 24,000 tonnes for Uzbekistan, 14,600 tonnes for Kyrgyzstan, 6,300 tonnes for Turkmenistan and 2,000 tonnes for Russia. No wheat flour exports to China were recorded for a fifth consecutive month.
Nine-month totals remain ahead
Despite the May decline, Kazakhstan shipped an estimated 7.2217 million tonnes of wheat during September-May 2025/26, 19% more than in the same period of the previous marketing year, according to the Grain Union. Central Asian countries accounted for 5.5352 million tonnes, or 76.6% of the total, compared with 69.5% a year earlier. Uzbekistan alone represented 59.6%, while its purchases increased by 44%. Shipments to Afghanistan rose 2.8-fold.
The destination mix changed sharply outside the core regional market. Wheat exports increased 27-fold to Turkey, 360-fold to Iran and 14.8-fold to Russia. Kazakhstan also supplied 23,300 tonnes to Tunisia and 6,000 tonnes to France, markets that received no Kazakh wheat in the comparable period. Conversely, shipments fell to 207,800 tonnes for Azerbaijan, 242,200 tonnes for Italy and 38,600 tonnes for Georgia. Deliveries to Egypt, Vietnam and Morocco dropped to zero.
Durum weakens as feed flour sets records
Durum wheat was a weaker segment. May exports amounted to 11,700 tonnes, 3.52 times less than in April and 3.5 times less than a year earlier. September-May shipments declined 14% to 394,500 tonnes. Italy remained the largest buyer with 242,200 tonnes, down 32%, prompting the Grain Union to reduce its 2025/26 durum export forecast by 50,000 tonnes to 450,000 tonnes.
Wheat flour exports for the nine months increased 17.5% to 1.7335 million tonnes. Domestic flour production rose 15.3% to 3.1293 million tonnes, with exports accounting for 55.4% of output. Feed flour moved in the opposite direction to grain and milling flour in May: exports rose almost 41% from April to a record 352,000 tonnes. Nine-month shipments reached a record 2.7565 million tonnes, 1.88 times the year-earlier volume, with China taking more than 99%. The Grain Union raised its full-season forecasts to 8.6 million tonnes for wheat, 2.05 million tonnes for wheat flour and 3.3 million tonnes for feed flour, the latter assuming no new Chinese administrative restrictions.
