July 18, 2006

 

Iraq's new tender to buy wheat imminent

 

 

The Grain Board of Iraq is set to announce a new tender to buy wheat from the international market, acting head of the board Khaled al-Ubaidi told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday (Jul 17). 

 

"We are planning to issue the tender for the new wheat purchase within the next few days," Ubaidi told Dow Jones Newswires by telephone.

 

Ubaidi said the official amount of the tender would be between 100,000 tonnes and 150,000 tonnes, but added that usually Iraq buys more than that amount.

 

The tender would be addressed to all wheat suppliers, he said.

 

Iraq needs to buy more than 3 million tonnes of wheat every year.

 

In the last two months of 2005 and first four months of 2006 the board bought 1.55 million tonnes, including some 500,000 tonnes from Canada, 450,000 tonnes from the US, 350,000 tonnes from Australia and 150,000 tonnes from Germany.

 

Iraq's Trade Ministry, which supervises wheat purchases, has been involved in a high-profile row with Australia, Iraq's traditional wheat supplier, over the shooting and killing of two Iraqis and the wounding of three others by an Australian security detachment in Baghdad on Jun 21.

 

Trade Minister Abdul Falah al-Sudani had earlier threatened to suspend trade ties with Australia. But on Monday (Jul 17) he said that he had reached an agreement with Australia to compensate families of the victims.

 

He also said that Baghdad has not put barriers on wheat purchases from Australia.

 

Baghdad suspended last year its ties with Australia's monopoly wheat exporter AWB Ltd over allegations it paid kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime under the oil-for-food deal with the UN.

 

Australian suppliers outside AWB set up a new company called Wheat Australia Ltd to undertake wheat exports to Iraq. Baghdad had so far bought 350,000 tonnes of wheat from the new company.