Most of Kazakhstan's new wheat harvest classified as Grade 3 - govt

ASTANA. Aug 28 (Interfax) - Some 78% of Kazakhstan's new wheat harvest to date has been classified as Grade 3, the government press service said.

Farmers have already harvested 5.5 million hectares of grain crops, or 35.5% of the total area - nearly double the figure from the same period last year. With average yields of 1.4 tonnes per hectare, 7.7 million tonnes of grain have been threshed, compared with 3.9 million tonnes a year earlier.

"Early grain acceptance results confirm the high quality of the new harvest. The bulk of soft wheat received is high-grade grain. According to quality indicators, 78% was classified as Grade 3, 14% as Grade 4, and 7% as Grade 5 or below," the government said.

High quality was also noted in gluten content. More than half of the soft wheat, or 56%, had gluten content above 28%. Another 19% had gluten content of 25-27%, and 25% had 23-24%.

Licensed grain receiving facilities have taken in 1.025 million tonnes, seven times the 145,500 tonnes stored in the same period of 2025.

Alongside grains, farmers are also harvesting oilseeds, vegetables and melons. So far, 244,000 tonnes of oilseeds have been threshed. More than 1.9 million tonnes of vegetables, 1.7 million tonnes of melons and 795,000 tonnes of potatoes have been harvested. Harvesting operations are proceeding as planned, the government said.

The harvest began earlier this year because crops matured faster due to the unusually hot summer.

Kazakhstan increased grain production by 2% to 27 million tonnes in 2025, with yields of 1.7 tonnes per hectare (1.6 tonnes per hectare in 2024). Potato harvests reached 2.8 million tonnes and vegetables 3.7 million tonnes.