Supply Chain Research

Iraq may need to import up to one million metric tons of wheat and barley after a second year of drought and a reduction in plantings by local farmers. That follows a global glut going back to 2012 which has partly led American farmers to also cut planting this year. So far the Middle East has not been a fertile market for U.S. grain exports. Shipments of wheat to Iraq have been just 78,000 tons annually in the past five years, with the region more broadly accounting for just 3% of American exports in the past 12 months.