Australian grain exports have been buoyed by a new deal with Iraq for wheat to be delivered over the next four months but have missed out on extra sales elsewhere following Hurricane Quatrain's disruption of US exports.
The sale to Iraq, which re-started Australia's big wheat trade with the country after a three-month freeze, showed no aftershocks from the dispute over alleged contamination of wheat shipments, Australia's monopoly wheat exporter said on Thursday.
"That issue is behind us. We're resuming shipping. That is good news for Australian wheat growers," AWB Ltd spokesman Peter McBride said on Thursday.
AWB presently has one ship on its way to Iraq's port of Umm Quasar, carrying around 50,000 tonnes, and will deliver a total of 650,000 tonnes over the next four months, trade sources said.
Australia delivered its last wheat supplies to Iraq at the end of June, completing a one million tonne contract, after three vessels were stranded for months when Iraq refused to unload them because of disputed allegations of contamination with iron dust.
Eventually the cargoes were proven to be clean, but Australia was not able to come up with new sales to chaotic Iraq until this week's deal. Australia has been Iraq's leading wheat supplier since the 1990s, when Baghdad stopped buying US wheat because of the Gulf War.
Iraq in past years has been Australia's largest wheat market, taking up to 2 million tonnes a year.
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