Australian consortium announces large wheat sale to Iraq

CANBERRA, Australia — An Australian consortium announced Tuesday that it has clinched a deal to sell 350,000 tons of wheat to Iraq — the first wheat sale since Australia’s monopoly exporter was barred from the market.

Wheat Australia — a consortium of grain handlers ABB, CBH and GrainCorp — announced that commercial hurdles that threatened to scuttle the 90 million Australian dollar ($69 million) deal last week had been overcome.

“Following further negotiations, we’ve successfully concluded an agreement with the Iraqi Grains Board,” CBH spokesman Rhys Ainsworth said in a statement.

“To conclude an agreement with the IGB on commercially workable terms provides Wheat Australia with a solid platform from which we can continue with a future association with one of Australia’s most crucial markets,” he added.

The first grain shipment will leave Australia in June, he said.

The Iraqis barred dealings with Australia’s monopoly exporter, AWB Ltd., in February while that company is under investigation over allegations that it paid kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s regime through the corruption-riddled U.N. oil-for-food program.