On Saturday (August 4), the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture instructed the authorities to allow the importation of some crops in response to disappointing domestic production.

The importation of tomatoes, potatoes, melons, and watermelon crops has been opened in order to make them available at low prices, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Mahdi Mahdi al-Qaisi said in a press release.

He explained that observations made by the monitoring teams of the Ministry and by the directorates of agriculture in the provinces [except for the Kurdistan Region], it was found that there is insufficient domestic productions of those crops.

Al-Qaisi pointed out that the ministry has prevented the import of these fruits and vegetables from abroad in the past because local production had been sufficient and was part of an effort to support Iraqi farmers and protect the local market.

Iraq prohibits the importation of some agricultural crops during the summer season to protect local products because local goods are often not able to compete with imported ones on the open market.

Iraq has seen a steady decline of usable water resources from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in recent years due to an ongoing drought and upstream diversion in Turkey and Iran.

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