HindustanTimes.com

Tuesday, October 7, 2003

Iraq to resume wheat imports from India

Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, October 7

Iraq is planning to resume wheat imports from India and will buy a million
tonnes over the next six months.

"Owing to the problem of Karnal Bunt (a fungal disease) we had stopped the
import of Indian wheat. The problem has since been attended to by the
agriculture ministry and the exporters and, after inspection, we agreed to
resume imports," Yousif M Abdul-Rahman Al-Ani, officer in charge in the
Iraqi Ministry of Trade, told the media on Tuesday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a one-day conference "Focus Iraq" organised by
the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Al-Ani
said import of food is one of the priority areas identified by the interim
government.

Having satisfied themselves with the quality of Indian wheat and the
infrastructure in place for cleaning and handling by exporters, Al-Ain said,
"In addition to the largest pending order of 600,000 tonnes of wheat from
India, contracted two years back, we have amended the letter of credit to
source wheat from other sources and instead decided to buy it directly from
Indian exporters."

Iraq was earlier sourcing wheat, including some imported from India, through
countries like Russia, Syria, Egypt among others.

Now the World Food Programme (WFP) has been asked to renegotiate the
contracts to source more wheat from India.

The first consignment of 17,000 tonnes of wheat had already reached Iraq two
weeks ago and the remaining is to be delivered within six months, the
official said.

Iraq has identified food, power and other infrastructure projects among
priority areas for implementation and is seeking investment directly or
through joint venture route from India, said Al-Ani.

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