Turkmen leader accuses commodity exchange

Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov accused managers of the state commodity exchange of frustration of wheat export plans, country's TV channel said on Saturday. This March the Turkmen government decided to export wheat surplus of 200,000 tons for the first time in its history. The president told government meeting late on Friday that surplus of wheat, which is in high demand in the world, had not been sold yet. Several state officials and commodity exchange top managers may be fired because of unqualified work if they failed to fulfill their duties, Berdimuhamedov said. Last year wheat harvest in the Central Asian country amounted to 1.5 million tons, while during the Soviet period Turkmenistan cultivated almost no wheat and produced mainly cotton.