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For farmers› Safety

Safe grain deals: signs of fraud, the contract, checks, payment

How to spot a dishonest buyer or seller on the marketplace and structure a deal so you don't end up with neither money nor grain.

Signs of a fraudster

  • A price well above the market (from a buyer) or well below it (from a seller), combined with pressure to decide urgently.
  • A buyer asks you to ship grain without payment (“payment 3 days after unloading”) while being new and having no track record.
  • A seller demands 100% prepayment for grain that cannot be verified: there is no grain receipt and the elevator is unknown.
  • The BIN in the contract, the invoice and on the company seal do not match, or the company was registered recently.
  • Communication only via messengers; refusal of a video call, a meeting or an inspection of the lot.
  • A request to send money to an individual's account or a third company.
  • Fake payment orders: a screenshot of a transfer instead of money actually arriving in your account.

How to vet a counterparty

  • kgd.gov.kz: look up the taxpayer by BIN and check the name and director. Check that the company is not on the list of unreliable taxpayers (inactive, bankrupt, sham companies, absent from their registered address). Check VAT registration and tax arrears there as well.
  • aisoip.adilet.gov.kz: the register of debtors in enforcement proceedings.
  • eGov: a certificate of the registered legal entity showing the current director.
  • elicense.kz: the grain elevator's licence, if the grain is stored at an elevator.
  • qoldau.kz: check that the seller holds a grain receipt for the stated volume.
  • Ask for references from other farmers and from the elevator the counterparty works with.

What the contract must include

  • Full details of the parties, BIN, and a signatory with confirmed authority (appointment order or power of attorney).
  • Crop, class, quality parameters under GOST 9353-2016, tolerances and discounts for deviations.
  • Quantity, delivery basis (EXW, FCA, etc.), place and procedure of weighing.
  • Quality acceptance procedure: whose laboratory, arbitration sample, deadlines for claims.
  • Price with or without VAT, currency, payment terms and procedure.
  • Title passes only after payment.
  • Penalties for late payment or delivery, dispute resolution and jurisdiction.

Safe payment arrangements

  • Prepayment100% or in stages, lot by lot.
  • Letter of creditat a bank: the money is blocked in advance and paid to the seller when shipping documents are presented.
  • Transfer of the grain receipton qoldau.kz only after the money is credited to your account. Confirm receipt with your bank, not from a screenshot.
  • For exports above USD 50,000, the contract must be registered with a bank, and the deadlines for repatriating proceeds must then be met.

If you have been defrauded

  • Keep the correspondence, contract, waybills, e-invoices and payment documents.
  • Send the counterparty a written claim.
  • File a police report. If the debt is not paid, go to court, or to arbitration if the contract provides for it.
  • If grain has disappeared from an elevator, report it to the akimat's agriculture department, which supervises grain elevators.