Russia considers agriculture as a promising area of bilateral cooperation with Iraq and hopes to resume wheat exports to the republic in the near future, Russian Ambassador to Baghdad Maksim Maksimov told Sputni
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th February, 2019) Russia considers agriculture as a promising area of bilateral cooperation with Iraq and hopes to resume wheat exports to the republic in the near future, Russian Ambassador to Baghdad Maksim Maksimov told Sputnik.
Russia supplied wheat to Iraq until 2015. According to the ambassador, Iraq currently does not import Russia's wheat due to the absence of needed techniques used by the authorized agencies of the two countries to assess the quality and safety of grain.
"We hope that in the near future this issue will be resolved positively and the volume of supplies of Russian wheat will increase, given the prospects of the Iraqi market for Russian exporters," the ambassador said.
In December 2018, Russia and Iraq held consultations, during which they discussed issues related to Iraq's requirements for imported wheat, research methods used to determine quality and safety of grain, and its compliance with quarantine phytosanitary requirements for foreign supplies. Iraq's representatives were briefed on Russian grain export organization system and agreed to consider a possibility of organizing exports of Russian grain to Iraq.
