December 23, 2005

 

Australia to remain long term wheat supplier to Iraq 

 

 

Australian wheat exporter AWB Ltd. expects to remain a long term wheat supplier to Iraq and would bid for the next tender, company spokesman Peter McBride said Friday.

 

AWB is some way through a contract to supply about 650,000 tonnes of wheat, which McBride said would probably be filled by around late February.

 

Australia has been the dominant supplier of wheat to Iraq for about 15 years, but in the past six months, Iraq has bought more wheat from the US than Australia.

 

US suppliers won the previous tender, which was offered on a free on board basis.

 

"We didn't win it because they had a better price," McBride said in a brief interview.

 

"We don't win every tender," he added.

 

Relations with the importing authority, the Iraqi Grains Board, are good, he said.

 

He was commenting after the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported Australia's wheat trade with Iraq is in jeopardy, because of a wrangle over shipping costs in the wake of an investigation into corruption and kickbacks during the operation of the UN's oil-for-food programme.

 

In November, Australian Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran said Iraq would judge Australian wheat on its merits and would not use the findings of a UN report to disadvantage growers.

 

McGauran was commenting after meeting Iraq's Minister for Agriculture Ali al-Bahadli in Rome.