in and when grain crops were abundant the fcc withdrew from the market around onequarter of the harvest with fcc s purchases considerably exceeding its sales in the drought year the operations were reversed the fcc released additional volumes of grain onto the market that equalled nearly of that year s crop in addition to domestic operations the fcc is involved in international grain trading as an operator of state grain resources and commercial trader the company uses its own funds to purchase grain for exports export sales are closely linked with its domestic operations and more likely represent an activity to balance the company s grain stocks than a regular trading business thus fcc exports have been extremely variable ranging in from tonnes to tonnes in as was their importance relative to fcc s domestic sales and kazakhstan s total grain exports figure