BAGHDAD: Iraq's flour prices have tripled over the last two months because of shortages in imported wheat supplies, threatening to push up food prices that have already stirred protests in some poorer parts of the country. Iraq is one of the world's largest wheat importers and much of the government's budget is spent on a food ration program that supplies 60 percent of Iraqis. Merchants and traders said prices had spiked as officials had been unable to supply flour. “When there is no flour in food rations for a month, market prices go up as people need this important staple and will continue to buy it,” said Mustafa Kadhim, 30, a flour merchant in the main wholesale market in eastern Baghdad. In Baghdad markets, a 50-kilogram sack of flour which sold at 10,000 Iraqi dinars, or $8.50, two months ago, now sells for 30,000 dinars, or $26, a bag, according to local merchants. Government officials say price increases are temporary because they have local wheat in stock and are waiting for the arrival of imported wheat from the ports and from overseas to mix with Iraqi produce to manufacture flour. “Yes, there was a shortage in December until mid-January, but now we have 200,000 tons of imported wheat and 260,000 tons of local wheat in stock which covers needs for over a month,” Muthanna Jabbar, director general of Iraq's grains trading board, said. “In the coming few days, flour will be available in the market and (average prices) will go back to normal. Wheat is arriving constantly,” Jabbar added. Poor services are chief complaints of Iraqis, whose country is trying to rebuild its shattered economy.
