ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — In a bid to boost local tomato production, the Iraqi government announced the decision to stop importing tomatoes from Turkey.
“The tomato products of Najef and Karbala have considerably increased and it needs more support to boost the local product,” read a statement from the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources.
The statement adds that these two provinces “could meet the domestic demand of [all] the Iraqi provinces as well.”
Rudaw has learned that this decision will not apply to the Kurdistan Region.
From Turkey, Iraq according to government statistics had imported tomatoes valued at $98.5 million in 2014, $82.8 million in 2015 and $88 million in 2016.
Iraq is the second country after Russia which decided to halt tomato regional imports from Turkey.
Turkey is the fourth largest tomato exporter in the world fulfilling 6.9 percent of global demand, according Turkish Agricultural Chambers Union (TZOB).
Following the Russian ban, Turkish farmers had sought out alternative markets, mainly in Iraq, Belarus, Georgia and Saudi Arabia, the TZOB said in a statement in March.
