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.
