Kazakhstan Increases Wheat Exports to Iran by 617 Times

Grain shipments to Turkey, Russia, and the United Kingdom also surged

Kazakhstan increased its wheat exports by 16.2% compared to the previous year. Shipments to Iran, Turkey, Russia, and the United Kingdom recorded particularly sharp growth, according to NBK.

As noted by Yevgeny KARABANOV, Head of the Analytics Department at the Grain Union of Kazakhstan, the country exported 8.87 million tonnes of soft and durum wheat during the 2025-2026 marketing year. This is the highest figure on record since statistical data became available.

In the 2025-2026 season, Kazakh wheat was exported to France and Tunisia for the first time. However, the most significant increase was recorded in shipments to Iran, which rose 617-fold year-on-year. No other destination saw such a dramatic increase in imports of Kazakh grain.

Exports to Turkey increased 27-fold, shipments to Russia rose 12-fold, and exports to the United Kingdom tripled. Kazakhstan also expanded grain deliveries to Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

In terms of physical volumes, Kazakhstan’s Central Asian neighbors remained the largest markets, accounting for 78.7% of total wheat exports. Uzbekistan alone represented 60.8% of all exports.

During the previous marketing year, Kazakhstan reduced wheat shipments to Turkmenistan, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Italy, Norway, Georgia, Algeria, Egypt, Vietnam, and Morocco. Exports to China declined particularly sharply.

“The 4.14-fold decrease in wheat exports to China, to 43,200 tonnes, was offset by an increase in feed flour shipments of 1.43 million tonnes (+65%),” Yevgeny Karabanov specified.

At the same time, imports of Russian grain into Kazakhstan increased 4.2-fold over the year.

Photo: Igor Ulitin / NBK.

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