Iraq lamb sales suspended

Press, 5 March 1982, Page 23

Iraq lamb sales suspended

PA Wellington No further lamb sales to Iraq are likely until at least the middle of this year because of that country’s war with Iran, according to Mr Bruce Bishop, the export sales manager for W. and R. Fletcher, which has organised lamb exports to Iraq. He said that the Iraqis had not invited new tenders for lamb because much of their present supply had not been consumed. The problem lay with Iraqi military supply lines, which were unable to get the lamb to the country’s troops, who were fighting along the long Iranian border.

Negotiations for more lamb sales to Iraq had been due to begin this month but now the contract was likely to be pushed back to the second half of this year. Mr Bishop said, “We are still hopeful that there will be something but the earliest shipment would be June.” Iraq’s only port is closed by the war and all imports are going through Aqaba, in neighbouring Jordan, which is also exporting Iraq’s oil. In 1980-81, Iraq was New Zealand’s second-biggest Middle Eastern lamb market after Iran. The halt in buying will probably bring Saudi Arabia back among the market leaders.