2024-01-15T14:14:22+00:00
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/ The Iraqi Minister of Commerce, Atheer Daoud Salman Al-Ghurairi, confirmed on Sunday that Iraq has sufficient quantities of wheat for a year.
Al-Ghurairi said during his visit to the Baghdad International Fair that the basket of food commodities, which includes sugar, rice, legumes and cooking oil, covers the country’s needs for six months, according to what was reported by Reuters.
The Iraqi minister’s comments came in the wake of a post on the “X” platform, late last December, by the US ambassador to Baghdad, Alina Romanowski, in which she said that Iraq would need to import more than 3 million tons of grain during 2024 to meet the local market demand.
In an interview with Bloomberg, the Iraqi minister said that his country does not plan to import wheat in 2024, with large stocks in Iraq sufficient for seven months, with expectations of a bumper crop this year.
According to what Daoud told Bloomberg News, Iraq has reserves amounting to two million tons, adding: “We are anticipating the start of this year’s harvest season by April as usual.” The crop is expected to be better than last year.