Iraq's Etihad Food Industries seeks long-term raw sugar contracts

Iraq's Etihad Food Industries is looking to sign long-term raw sugar importing contracts with large trading firms after its current contract with Alvean runs out in November. Etihad's commercial director, Haidar al-Noumany, said in an interview that Etihad was looking for one- or two-year contracts. Noumany, speaking on the sidelines of the Dubai Sugar Conference, said Etihad imported 1.047 million tonnes of raw sugar in 2016 for its Babil-based sugar refinery, mostly from Brazil, with around 25,000 tonnes from India.
Etihad produced 1.03 million tonnes of sugar in 2016 and sold 940,000 tonnes.
"Most of the sales were for the Iraqi market, but there were a few exports," Noumany said.
Around 25,000 tonnes of sugar were sold into northern Syria.
"It is indirect exporting done on trucks through Kurdish traders who are based in Iraq ... in Erbil and other Kurdish areas."
Around 60 percent of sugar sales inside Iraq go to the trade ministry for the country's food rationing programme, the Public Distribution System.
Etihad's sugar refinery, which came onstream in February 2015, is looking to double its production capacity with an expansion starting in 2018.
"The expansion is to fulfil increasing demand from the Iraqi market and the rest for export to neighbouring countries like Turkey, Syria and Jordan," Noumany said.
Etihad's vegetable oil refinery is set to come onstream in March for the first stage of production, reaching full capacity in six months from that date.
The total capacity is 3,600 tonnes per day and four kinds of oil will be produced: soybean oil, sunflower oil, palm oil and corn oil.
"It will mostly be for processing sunflower oil but we will produce the four kinds. It will supply the ministry of trade and the private market," Noumany said. Sunflower oil produced at the refinery is expected to compete with Turkish vegetable oils being sold in northern Iraq.
"We have a good chance to compete as we have a large production capacity, which will bring production costs down. Trucking from Turkey also increases prices (for competitors there)," Noumany said.