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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

U.S. wheat still shut out of Iraq

Wheat sellers remain frustrated that Iraq continues to buy its grain from Australia rather than the United States.

U.S. Wheat Associates, a national marketing group, said Thursday that Iraq recently purchased 800,000 metric tons of wheat from Australia. That’s about 29 million bushels, or 15 percent of an annual Washington wheat crop.

The sales shouldn’t be a surprise.

“This morning’s announcement is not good news,” U.S. Wheat president Alan Tracy said in a press release, but “the Australians have had a strong business relationship with Iraq through the last decade while the U.S. was locked out.”

American wheat marketers and grain companies have been trying to re-establish trade ties with Iraq. Yet sales are difficult to close because of the familiarity Iraq has with Australian grain, said Tom Mick, CEO of the Washington Wheat Commission.

American politics and foreign policies have stifled wheat sales to Iraq and neighboring Iran.

Iran, for example, had been the largest single buyer of the soft white wheat grown in the Pacific Northwest until that country’s 1979 revolution.

Iraq had been a good buyer of hard red wheat, most of which is grown on the American Great Plains.

Mick said selling wheat to Iraq will be difficult until American marketers are able to host education forums.

“It’s tough to break in,” he said. “Right now we’re at a stalemate.”

While the Iraq sales are not a big factor for regional farmers, Mick said new markets for all American wheats are important.

Exports are especially important to Eastern Washington and Idaho, where about 85 percent of the grain harvested is sold overseas.