Competitive Efficiency of Foreign Cereal Trade Between Kazakhstan and China

Cereal trade is an important means of managing global food demand and maintaining national food security. Trade-in cereal and other agricultural products are becoming an increasingly important way of managing resources between countries with rich resources and countries with limited resources. Grain production is the sector with the highest priority in the development of agriculture in Kazakhstan, while China is the world’s leading cereal producer and consumer. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the development of foreign trade with cereal between Kazakhstan and China by using the empirical data given by UN COMTRADE to highlight its efficiency by type of cereal traded from 2009 to 2018. The study used Revealed Comparative Advantage and Import Coverage indexes to achieve its goal. The results revealed that Kazakhstan’s most productive foreign trade has been achieved for wheat, barley, and rice, while the most productive cereals of China are rice, buckwheat, and sorghum. Moreover, there is no direct competition on cereal between Kazakhstan and China in international trade. This study has led to the conclusion that Kazakhstan intends to trade more cereals with high export value, low import value, high positive trade balance, high coverage index, and highly competitive advantages in foreign trade. Kazakhstan should make use of comparative advantages to optimize the structure of grain trade in bilateral trade. Consequently, China must increase its cereal production potential through improved yields, so that it can only enter foreign markets under exceptional circumstances.

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