Heavy snowfall has boosted hopes for Kazakhstan's grains harvest, contrasting with setbacks in some other major producing nations, and prompting the country to urge action to boost its creaking storage infrastructure.

The snows which have accompanied bitter temperatures, which have fallen below -30 degrees Celsius this winter, hitting north east China too, have "created conditions for moisture accumulation in the soil for a future crop", Muslim Umiryayev, the Kazak deputy agriculture minister, said.

This "allows us to make optimistic forecasts for the 2013 harvest".

While falling short of forecasting production, Mr Umiryayev said that the healthy prospects underlined the need to prepare to store the crop.

Factoring in carryover stocks from 2012-13 expected at 4.7m tonnes, and "also an expected good grain harvest this year, it is necessary to consider beforehand and take all measures to ensure proper storage", he said.

Sowing hopes

Farm ministry data forecast Kazakhstan farmers - who are forced by the harsh winters to rely on spring crops - sowing 15.9m hectares of grains this year.

This includes 13.1m hectares of wheat, with barley making up most of the other acreage.

The wheat forecast represents a 2% decline year on year, and is below the 13.5m hectares forecast by the International Grains Council, on a harvested basis, in line with that last year.

Nonetheless, the better prospects for Kazakh grains - which were hurt by drought last year, sending output down by more than one-half to 12.8m tonnes – contrasts with setbacks to winter crops in countries such as Russia and the US, where seedlings are threatened by drought, besides in parts of the European Union, beset by too much rain.

Export ideas

Mr Umiryayev's comments came as he said that Kazakhstan has the potential to export about 7m tonnes of grains in 2012-13.

The US Department of Agriculture foresees Kazakh wheat exports at 7.0m tonnes, with a further 200,000 tonnes of barley on top, while the IGC estimates total grain shipments at 7.2m tonnes.

"Destinations for our exports are traditional - Central Asian markets, Afghanistan and Iran, as well as other traditional buyers in Europe and North Africa like in the last marketing year," he said.

However, ideas are growing of Kazakh exports to neighbouring Russia, whose own supplies have been depleted by a rapid export programme early in 2012-13.

Russia is "lusting after" Kazakh wheat, consultancy Agritel said.