ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Kurdish government has decided to ban the import of grapes into the Kurdistan Region, the latest in a wave of foreign produce bans aimed at boosting the domestic market.
The decree was announced Monday by Hussein Hama Karim, Agriculture and Water Resources spokesperson for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
"The ban is to protect our domestic product," Karim said, adding they will continue their campaigns to boost local agricultural output.
"We will continue our efforts to completely ban the illegal import of products into the Region," he said. "Our domestic products must sell in the markets."
Grapes from the Kurdistan Region province of Duhok are well known for their quality, but local farmers say they cannot compete with the lower prices of imported grapes from Egypt, Iran and Turkey.
“It is the harvest season now, but grapes are imported from Egypt, Iran and Turkey while we have such good quality grapes,” local grape farmer Khalid Ahmed told Rudaw earlier this week. “It has harmed our grape market, although they are not as good as ours, but their prices are lower.”
The KRG has imposed a quick succession of foreign product bans in a bid to aid local producers.
Last week the government decided to ban honey imports in a bid to support local production. The KRG announced the prohibition of tomato imports in August, which came into effect on September 1.
"The ninth cabinet of the government is paying serious attention to the agriculture sector,” Agriculture Minister Begard Talabani said yesterday in a meeting with Kurdish Socialist Democratic Party leader Mohammed Haji Mahmood. “The majority of people in the Region have sensed that.”
