Iraq plans to buy more than 2.8 million tonnes of wheat for 2011, compared to 1.9 million tonnes last year, to increase its strategic stockpile, the head of its grains trading board said in an interview on Tuesday. Director General Muthanna Jabbar also told Reuters a tender would be issued around the end of the month for the construction of eight silos to increase storage capacity.
Iraq is one of the world's largest wheat importers and much of the government's budget is spent on a food ration programme that supplies 60 percent of Iraqis. The country's flour prices have tripled over the last three months because of shortages of imported wheat and Jabbar said the decision to build silos came as a result of low capacity, mainly in the southern provinces. Iraq's 45 concrete silos, which were built in the 1950s and 1960s mostly by Russian companies, are dilapidated and have a maximum capacity of 10,000 tonnes each.
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