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Iraq bans the export of palms till 2009
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Translated by IRAQdirectory.com - [1/13/2007]
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Iraq confirmed the continuing validity of its decision banning the export of all kinds of palm shoots up to the year 2009, pointing out that the resolution is renewable and it ends in 2008, and not the beginning of this year.
The Director-General of the General Body for palms in the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture Far'oun Ahmed Hussein, said that the banning decision which was issued in 2004 "will remain valid for five years, subject to renewal".
He explained that the aim of this resolution is to protect "palm shoots of smuggling operations, especially that the law specified the export of abundant types in Iraq like Alzahdi and few unimportant kinds such as Aldagl".
Hussein talked about "the difficulty now in controlling the border outlets to identify the types prohibited from export, which led the ministry to issue a ban includes all types". He hoped that the control bodies on the border outlets "would be able to protect the national wealth from smuggling at the end of the resolution next year".
He denied reports about Iraq importing dates, pointing out that local production "did not fall from 400 thousand tons annually, and this is four times the local need, as well as being contrary to the law of agricultural quarantine, which prohibits the import of 23 articles, including dates". He attributed the violations of this law, to "the weak control over border crossings and the interests of non-Iraqi traders".
The Director of palms revealed that "Iraq had retreated to the fifth rank in exporting dates on the world level in the last few years, after it was ranked first in the eighties of the last century", attributing that to the exceptional circumstances experienced by the country. He pointed out that the production of dates achieved record numbers during the 90s, reaching 880 thousand tons in 1995, and rose to 923 thousand tons in 2000".
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