The Canadian Wheat Board hopes to revitalise future trade with Iraq, the agency's spokeswoman said on Monday, after the Iraqi Grain Board confirmed it recently purchased 500,000 tonnes of wheat from Canada.
"We are very interested in doing everything we can to try to do business in that market. It's very much a desirable market to be in, for Canada," Maureen Fitzhenry said.
The CWB, which holds the marketing monopoly on western Canadian wheat and barley, does not comment on sales during the current crop year and would neither confirm nor deny the sale to Iraq, one of the world's largest grain import markets.
A sale of the magnitude confirmed by the Iraqi Grain Board would be a positive development for western Canadian farmers, Fitzhenry said.
Iraq trade ministry sources said on Monday the country will buy an additional 500,000 tonnes of wheat from Canadian and Australian firms to complete a 1.5 million-tonne tender issued in January.
The Iraqi board froze business dealings with Australian Wheat Board Ltd last month after a scandal involving kickbacks to the former Saddam Hussein regime under the oil for food program. Wheat values in Canada have been competitive after its farmers produced a large crop during the 2005-06 year.
"In the past it was a very important market for Canada and we had sales in excess of a million tonnes a year prior to late 1990," Fitzhenry said.
Canada's wheat exports to Iraq increased throughout the 1980s to nearly 800,000 tonnes of wheat and 300,000 tonnes of barley during the 1989/1990 crop year. Exports halted after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, although the CWB sold smaller amounts of wheat to Iraq during the 1999-00 and 2000-01 crop years, when Iraq bought approximately 300,000 tonnes each year.
Industry sources did not expect Iraq will become a regular importer of Canadian wheat, with one wheat trader expecting Iraq will look to Canada only when its prices are low.
One grain analyst expected Iraq could look to Canada for wheat more regularly.
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