ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Erbil Mayor Nabaz Abdulhamid on Monday assured locals that warehouses in the city have stored sunflower seed oil for "months", without mentioning an exact time, adding that people should not panic buy more goods than necessary.
The comments come as prices of oil and wheat have increased and concern is rising about goods imported from Ukraine and Russia.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which continues into its 12th day, has led to a significant increase in food prices in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, including a spike in wheat and cooking oil prices.
The first deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament on Monday chaired a meeting regarding the high prices of food and products in the market, reported state media.
Merchants who “manipulate” the prices at markets will be held accountable, Hakim al-Zamli warned.
The price of sunflower seed oil has doubled in Iraq and the Region as Moscow and Kyiv are key suppliers of the product.
Russia is the world’s top wheat exporter and Ukraine is known to be the breadbasket of Europe, with the Middle Eastern states heavily relying on Ukrainian agricultural products.
A Kurdish trader on Saturday said the demand for flour purchases has “increased by 500 tons” since the war broke out in Ukraine, with the Kurdistan Region fighting off a shortage of flour by lowering the price of domestically produced flour.
“The price of one ton of imported flour has increased by $50, but in return, the price of one ton of domestic flour has fallen by about $100,” Latif Bakir told Rudaw’s Bahroz Faraidun.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi on Sunday devoted an emergency meeting to food security in the country.
Iraq is a conundrum when it comes to wheat and flour, making it among the world’s largest wheat and flour importers, often purchased from Turkey. Ankara stands second on the list of destinations of wheat exports from Russia. While Iraq does not directly purchase wheat from Russia or Ukraine, it is still indirectly affected due to the impact of the conflict on Turkish trade.
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