Kurdistan Region could meet Iraq ‘food basket’: PM Barzani

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region, agriculturally, could provide Iraq’s food basket, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Tuesday, indicating the region’s agricultural potential, according to a statement.

The Kurdish leader’s remarks came during a meeting with Polish Ambassador to Iraq Marcin Kubiak and an accompanying delegation, in which the latest developments in Iraq and the region, bilateral relations between Poland and the Kurdistan Region, and the agricultural sector, were discussed, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.

Prime Minister Barzani outlined his cabinet’s plan to diversify the sources of revenue for the region with a particular focus on the agricultural sector.

“The Kurdistan Region has the potential to be Iraq’s food basket,” Prime Minister Barzani said during the meeting, according to the statement.

The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) ninth cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Barzani, announced plans in July to launch over 100 agricultural projects across the Kurdistan Region.

Read More: Kurdistan Region planning over 100 new projects to develop agriculture

Prime Minister Barzani previously laid the foundation stone for a food industrial project in Duhok province, consisting of 270 food factories that would become a strategic hub for agricultural products.

Another aspect of the meeting was dedicated to discussing the bilateral relations between Poland and the Kurdistan Region and ways to further improve them, according to the statement.

Ambassador Kubiak, for his part, expressed Poland’s “willingness” to develop bilateral relations with the Kurdistan, particularly in trade and combating the coronavirus pandemic, the statement noted.

Kurdistan Region officials, on different occasions, have expressed their willingness to reduce reliance on oil and gas as the major source of revenue for the autonomous region as it is highly susceptible to price volatility.   

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany