Company Announces U.S. Wheat Shipment to Iraq

AMEROPA, an international grain and fertilizer trading company based in Switzerland, recently announced that it completed arrangements with the UN World Food Program and Iraqi Ministry of Trade authorities to deliver 32,000 metric tons of U.S. wheat to Iraq in early 2004.  This is a significant event, as it is the first commercial export of U.S. wheat delivered to Iraq in over six years.

This requirement of 32,000 metric tons was originally part of a UN Oil-For-Food contract with the World Food Program, which AMEROPA was responsible for executing for the Russian company ALFA-ECO.  The deliveries of Russian wheat under the contract were interrupted by the events of Operation Iraqi Freedom last year. During the renegotiation of these contracts, AMEROPA, with ALFA-ECO’s concurrence, approached the Iraqi Ministry of Trade, the World Food Program, the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Agriculture with a proposal to substitute high quality U.S. Hard Red Winter Wheat for the remainder of the contract deliveries.

While this quantity of U.S. wheat is small in comparison to Iraqi wheat import requirements of about 2 million metric tons annually, it is symbolic and represents an opportunity for Iraq to demonstrate that procedures for future wheat purchases will be on a competitive basis in the world market, which should enable U.S. farmers to compete for Iraqi contracts in the months and years ahead.