BAGHDAD: Major importer Iraq plans to buy 3.25 million tonnes of wheat this year compared with 1.9 million tonnes last year, partly to bolster strategic stockpiles, the head of Iraqi Grains Trading Company said.
Iraq, one of the world's largest grain importers, had earlier this year planned to buy more than 2.8 million tonnes of wheat. "Our plan is to buy the (wheat) requirement for one year plus a million tonnes as a strategic reserve," grains company director Hassan Ibrahim told Reuters in an interview on Monday. Iraq also plans to buy 1.5 million tonnes of rice, part of which will be used for stockpiles, he said.
Much of Iraq's imported wheat and rice goes to a large public food rations programme. The country consumes 4.5 million tonnes of wheat and 1.2 million tonnes of rice a year, most of it imported.
Ibrahim said the state grains company would issue another wheat tender this month but would stop issuing grain tenders for 2011 by the end of August.
Iraq's flour prices tripled in recent months because of shortages of imported wheat but supplies are now adequate.
"Now flour is available in the markets in big quantities at $10 a (50 kg) bag," Ibrahim said.
Prices went to more than $25 a bag during the shortage.
The domestic wheat harvest season, which will start in a few days in the southern provinces, is expected to produce 2 million tonnes this year, Ibrahim said.
Rice production was expected to be minimal due to low water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and low rainfall.
"The local rice harvest is too small to mention," he said.
Turmoil in some Middle East countries has helped Iraq buy wheat at lower prices, Ibrahim said, citing a recent tender that produced offers of about $26 a tonne less than previous purchases.
"When these countries are not politically stable, they don't have the ability to bid at the right time," he said.
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