2024-01-15T14:14:22+00:00
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/ The Iraqi Minister of Trade, Athir Dawood Salman Al-Ghariri, confirmed on Sunday that Iraq has sufficient quantities of wheat for a year.
Al-Ghariri said during his visit to the Baghdad International Fair that the food basket, which includes sugar, rice, legumes and cooking oil, covers the country’s needs for six months, according to Reuters.
The Iraqi minister’s comments came after 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 local market demand.
In an interview with Bloomberg, the Iraqi minister said that his country does not plan to import wheat in 2024, as there are large stocks in Iraq sufficient for seven months, with expectations of a bountiful crop this year.
Iraq has reserves of 2 million tons, Dawood told Bloomberg News, adding: “We expect this year’s harvest to start by April as usual.” He expected the crop to be better than last year.