Exporters reported the sale of 200,000 tonnes of US wheat to Iraq on Wednesday, boosting US sales to Iraqi to 1 million tonnes of hard red winter wheat this month. Along with the latest sale, Iraq purchased 800,000 tonnes of US HRW wheat on November 4.
Australia was the dominant wheat supplier to Iraq for years, but US sales have climbed sharply in recent months. According to the US Agriculture Department, 699,000 tonnes of US wheat were exported to Iraq this marketing year, as of November 17, with 1.23 million tonnes in outstanding sales.
At the same point in the 2004/05 marketing year, 159,600 tonnes were exported and there were no outstanding sales. All of the wheat purchased by Iraq in November was scheduled for delivery in 2005/06. The wheat marketing year opened on June 1.