KRG lays foundation stone of $122-million wheat marketing project in Sulaimani
The project will create "thousands of job opportunities," Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The foundation stone for a $122-million wheat marketing and processing project was laid on Sunday in Sulaimani province by Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.
Food processing facilities at the project will receive wheat crops from local farmers to make various wheat-based products, according to government officials who hailed the venture as a step to “guarantee” Sulaimani's food security.
Led by the Kurdish company Qaiwan Holding, the project will create “thousands of job opportunities” for the province’s residents, Prime Minister Barzani said at the ceremony.
“We do not look for short-term achievements. Our vision is a strategic one for the Kurdistan Region, which we wish to see to stand on its own feet,” Barzani added.
The facility is being built in Piramagroon, a town northwest of Sulaimani city.
The Region has in recent years seen a surge in agricultural production in general but saw an eight percent output growth this year, according to Begard Talabani, the Kurdistan Region Minister of Agriculture.
Silos with a 150,000-ton capacity along with 400-ton mills will be on the site to produce biscuits, bulgur, and spaghetti, according to a statement from the company implementing the project.
The foundation stone for a similar project was laid in the Kurdish capital of Erbil in November 2020, of which 70 percent has been completed, according to investment authorities.
The Sulaimani project is set to be completed in nearly four years or earlier, according to Qaiwan Holding.
With this project, the Erbil government is expected to be able to directly buy from its farmers 390,000 tons of wheat annually for processing, gradually reducing reliance on the federal Iraq government to buy up Kurdish wheat.
The federal government of Iraq releasing payments to Kurdish farmers in return for their wheat has been among a series of lingering disputes between it and the Kurdistan Regional Governments.
Editing by Khrush Najari
