September 11, 2007

Iraq to resume wheat purchases from Australia's AWB

Iraq has started talks with Australian wheat exporter AWB to purchase large quantities of hard wheat, the first such move in years, the Iraqi Trade Minister Abdul Falah al-Sudani said in a statement on Monday  (September 10).

"The ministry in cooperation with the AWB has started talks with senior government officials to purchase Australian wheat," the minister said after a meeting in Baghdad with the Australian ambassador to Iraq.

"The ministry is putting final touches on studies which aim at signing large contracts with Australia (to buy wheat)," the minister said.

Sudani did not say how much wheat Iraq is intending to buy from Australia.

Iraq suspended commercial dealings with AWB in February 2006, following revelations that AWB may have used unfair trade practices in its dealing with the previous regime.

AWB was Iraq's biggest wheat supplier for many years. Over the past two-and-a-half years, however, Iraq has been buying more wheat from the US and other suppliers.

Iraq has issued several tenders to buy hard wheat and rice over the last few weeks as its stocks are running out, according to Iraqi traders. They said the Grain Board of Iraq found it difficult to conclude deals with international companies to buy wheat as world prices are rocketing.

Separately, al-Sudani said that some 835,000 tonnes of Canadian and US hard wheat are expected to arrive in Iraq shortly. He also said that some 500,000 tonnes of US and Thai rice are expected to reach Iraq in the next few days. He did not say, however, when Iraq had purchased the mentioned quantities of wheat and rice.

Iraq needs to buy 3.8 million tonnes of wheat and 1 million tonnes of rice annually.