Syria struggles to seal deal to sell wheat to Iraq

Private Iraqi grain traders have not been able get trucks across the Syrian border to complete a deal, first agreed in June, to buy 200,000 tonnes of wheat from Syria's state grain body due to conflict raging in both countries. Syria's General Establishment for Cereal Processing and Trade (Hoboob) said on Monday the 200,000 tonnes of wheat it sold to Iraq was stuck in silos in the north-eastern city of Hassaka because the crisis in Iraq had halted efforts to get trucks moving.
"Right after we finalised the deal, all the problems in Iraq started happening so the wheat until today can't be transported," a Hoboob source told Reuters. "We are giving the traders an extra 30 days to execute the deal," the source said. Hoboob had said it sold 100,000 tonnes of soft wheat and 100,000 tonnes of durum wheat to Iraqi private traders from its 2013 crop in June. The wheat was sold at 206 euros a tonne, on a free-on-truck basis. The grain was in the Hassaka region of Syria.
Iraq's trade minister told Reuters on June 10, just before the current crisis escalated, the country did not import wheat from neighbouring Syria as the produce was not high enough quality, describing sales efforts by Damascus as a political move to "make some problems" for Baghdad. Hoboob said however the wheat was not sold to the Iraqi government, but to private grain traders.
Still, some trade sources tracking the cargoes questioned the feasibility of the deal. "Given this is a region close to the border with Iraq, it would make sense to truck any supplies across. But with militia groups active across the whole area, they will not be able to pull it off. I am not convinced this can be completed at the moment especially in large quantities," one Middle East-based commodities trade source said.
A European trade source also had doubts. "Unless, it is being routed through the Kurdish region I cannot see how this is doable," he said. The move by Syria to sell some of its wheat was surprising as experts predict a fall in the war-ravaged country's 2014 wheat crop to around a third of pre-war levels.