Iraq bans vegetable imports, eyes state purchases

BAGHDAD, May 29 - Iraq has placed a temporary ban on vegetable imports from countries including Turkey, Iran and Syria in a bid to boost its neglected farm sector.

Acknowledging the move could fuel inflation, the Agriculture Ministry said it had also decided to take over from private buyers the purchase of vegetables from abroad.

It will also require private sector firms to procure licences to buy set volumes of vegetables when the country needs additional supplies.

The Iraqi government already manages one of the world's largest grain purchase programmes through frequent, huge tenders.

"The ban began on May 1," Subhi al-Jumaily, a senior deputy agriculture minister said in an interview on Thursday.

"We don't want to shut off imports completely but want to arrange them through official agreements for all different food items," he said.

The vegetable import ban will be in place whenever Iraq's domestic supply is deemed sufficient, and will be lifted for foreign purchases if there is a shortfall, Jumaily said.

Iraqi farmers and manufacturers have complained of a flood of cheap imports since the fall of Saddam Hussein and his tightly controlled economy in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

That has stoked calls for a partial reversal of free market reforms to give Iraqi industries time to develop and compete after years of war and sanctions.

The ministry did not have any statistics on the volume and value of vegetables imported into Iraq, which has a population of about 28 million people.

Abdul Rahman al-Mashhadani of Baghdad's al-Mustansiriya University, said Iraq imports between 90 and 94 percent of all its food, and 60 to 70 percent of its vegetables.

For the year to date, $5.5 billion of food was imported from Turkey, $3.5 billion from Iran, and $3 billion from Syria, he said, while substantial imports also come from Jordan and China.

The figures do not include huge state purchases of wheat and rice from countries including Australia, Russia and Canada.

Iraq's farming sector has suffered from decades of underinvestment and neglect. Jumaily said the country now only produced 30 percent of the food it consumed domestically.

The move to restrict vegetable imports could stoke inflation but the ministry was taking measures to prevent this, he said, without giving details.

Inflation in Iraq has fallen steeply to an expected 10 percent this year, as Iraq emerges from the sectarian war and insurgency of the past six years. Three years ago, core inflation ran at more than 30 percent.