Iraq’s agriculture ministry said on Monday it plans to grow 1.6 million hectares of wheat during the 2017-2018 season.
Mehdi al-Qaisi, the agriculture ministry’s technical agent, said the figure was less than 1.8 million hectares planted last year, and attributed the decline to climate changes.
He said it was too early to estimate the volume of production, but hoped to exceed or close to last year’s target output of 3.65 million tonnes.
The Ministry of Trade said it had bought 2.38 million tonnes of domestic wheat in the 2017 season, while the Ministry of Agriculture estimated that it was 3.1 million tonnes higher.
Iraq needs supplies of between 4.5 and 5 million tonnes, which means a gap of more than 1 million tons per year.
