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Kyrgyzstan gets first humanitarian grain batch from Russia

The minister of Agriculture emphasized that Russia’s humanitarian aid has already exerted positive effect on Kyrgyzstan’s wheat and flour prices, which “began to shrink”

BISHKEK, December 29 (Itar-Tass) — Kyrgyzstan received Russia’s first humanitarian grain consignment on Friday.

“In compliance with the intergovernmental agreement the Russian side plans to send a total of 20,000 tonnes of grain to us,” the Central Asian republic’s Minister of Agriculture and Melioration, Chyngysbek Uzakbayev, said. “We’ve already received 5,000 tonnes.”

He expressed gratitude to Russia that supported Kyrgyzstan in “such a hard year.”

“This year we had poor yield of wheat, we fell short of approximately 300,000 tonnes. Now thanks to Russia’s aid we will have no shortage of flour and bread,” Uzakbayev said.

The minister emphasized that Russia’s humanitarian aid has already exerted positive effect on Kyrgyzstan’s wheat and flour prices, which “began to shrink.”

“We consider an opportunity of buying another 80,000 tonnes of grain at preferential prices,” Uzakbayev said.

The humanitarian cargo was delivered to Kyrgyzstan from the Orenburg region in Russia’s Urals. The next batch is expected in early 2013.

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