Iraqis force government to import ‘only’ U.S. rice

[Sara Johnson]

Iraqis force government to import ‘only’ U.S. rice

By Ali Shattab Azzaman, September 15, 20111

Iraqis openly loathe U.S. military occupation of their country but many of them cannot eat but U.S. rice. Rice is Iraqis’ staple diet and it is the main dish in almost all Iraqi meals. Iraqis grew to love U.S. rice under former leader Saddam Hussein. U.S. credits of billions of dollars helped Saddam import hundreds of thousands of tons of U.S. rice. But Saddam was forced to replace U.S. rice imports with those from Thailand and Vietnam under punitive U.N. trade sanctions imposed in 1990 for his invasion of Kuwait. The suspension of credit and oil exports forced the Iraqi leader to opt for cheaper rice from south-east Asian countries. The government alone imports 100,000 tons of rice a month from Thailand. Iraqis consume about 1.5 million tons of rice a year. But the Director-General of state-owned Grain Board Hassan Ibrahim says he has decided to replace Thai rice with U.S. imports. “In response to popular demand, the Grain Board has decided to replace Thai rice imports with U.S. rice imports,” said Ibrahim. He said the directive to replace Thai rice with rice from the U.S. was issued by the Trade Minister Khairallah Hassan. “The Trade minister has instructed to import U.S. rice instead of Thai raise in response to Iraqi citizens’ wishes,” added Ibrahim. Iraq has in place a food rationing system under which each Iraqi is entitled to specified quantities of rice, flour, tea, sugar and other food items every month.

http://www.azzaman.c...-09-15\kurd.htm

[Amber Williams]

thatll be good for us