Archive | Agriculture

Iraq Business News brings you the latest news on developments and opportunities in Iraq agriculture.

Iraq to Import 400k Tons of Grain

Iraq has decided to import 400,000 tons of American and Australian wheat, according to a statement by the Director-General of the General Company for Grain Trade on Saturday. “Trade Minister Kheirullah Hassan has approved a deal to purchase 400,000 tons of wheat, 300,000 tons of it from America and 100,000 tons from Australia,” Muthanna Abdul-Jabbar […]

Iraqi Govt Pumps $400m into Agriculture

The Iraqi Agriculture Minister has said that 470 billion Iraqi Dinars ($400 million) has been allocated to his ministry this year to develop the country’s agricultural sector, according to a report from AKnews. Izzeddine al-Dawla [Izzuldin al-Doula] said that the implementation of an irrigation project using the latest techniques and covering an area of more […]

Water Supply Problems in Maysan

The volume of waters from the Tigris River reaching Iraq has been receding to the extent that several water purification plants in the Province of Missan [Maysan] are running without water. Mohannad Kadhem, the head of water purification and distribution in the southern province, said the problem started with tributaries belonging to the river feeding […]

Commission to Cut Corruption in Ration Card Contracts

The parliamentary economic committee will oversee all commercial contracts signed by the Trade Ministry in order to eliminate corruption, a committee member announced today. Salman al-Moussawi told AKnews that the intervention of the commission is backed by the government in a bid to accelerate the work of the ministry and negate the possibility of fraudulent […]

Help MSMEs Rise to the Eco-Challenge

By T. Keyzom Ngodup, co-founder and Executive Director at Ideas sYnergy, an Iraq based private sector development consulting company. I was pleasantly ‘perplexed’ to learn that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, approved (on February 7, 2011) an agricultural project for developing biofuel from rotting dates. The ‘dates-to-biofuel’ project implemented by an unnamed company based in UAE, […]

New Tenders for Grain and Rice

The Grain Board of Iraq (Ministry of Trade) has announced a tender for the supply of: 100,000 tonnes of wheat. The deadline for bids is 10:00 am Baghdad time on 5th March. 30,000 tonnes of rice. The deadline for bids is 10:00 am Baghdad time on 12th March. If the English version of the documents […]

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Detailed New Briefing Paper on Iraq

The United Nations has prepared a comprehensive Briefing Book on Iraq, and presented it to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The book is comprised of two parts: The first part addresses key policy issues, including: macroeconomic challenges, development planning and prioritization, governance and public sector reform, anti-corruption, private sector development, social protection and the challenges of […]

Iraq to Import $65m of Rice

Iraq's Ministry of Trade has announced that it has closed a deal to import 125,000 tons of rice from Thailand at a cost of $65 million in order to meet the demands of the government’s food-subsidizing ration card system. The General Manager of the Ministry’s Grain Company, Muthanna Jabbar, told AKnews that deals have been […]

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Reduced Iraq Agricultural Output in 2011

By Ronald P Verdonk, Agricultural Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Looking at Iraqi agriculture over the past year, relatively abundant rainfall in late 2009 and through the first quarter of 2010 led to bumper 2010 wheat and barley crops. With last year’s domestic wheat harvest at just over 2.5 million metric tons and […]

Iraq Delays Fighter-Jet Purchase to Buy Food

Iraq is delaying the purchase of 18 American fighter jets because of budget problems, and has decided to use the money to buy food for the poor instead, said the Iraqi government spokesman on Monday. Associated Press reports that Iraq, like, many Middle Eastern countries in the wake of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, […]

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Potato Crop Down 8% in 2010

A spokesman for Iraq's Planning Ministry has blamed neighbouring countries for the decline in the country's potato crop. Iraq harvested 200,000 tons of potatos in 2010, compared to 223,000 tons in 2009 - a drop of almost 8%, Abdul-Zahra al-Hindawai told AKnews. He related the decline to the drop in the level of rivers flowing […]