Ship carrying 50,000+ tons of wheat anchors at Umm Qasr

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A ship carrying more than 50,000 tons of Canadian wheat arrived at Basra province port of Umm Qasr to meet an important ration item, the Iraqi trade ministry said on Sunday. “A plan was laid to transport and distribute the consignment to the country’s provinces depending on actual needs and population density,” according to a ministry statement received by IraqiNews.com news agency. “The Canadian wheat consignment has arrived aboard the ship Maria Salamon at the southern port of Umm Qasr,” it added. Iraq’s ration wheat needs are estimated at more than 330,000 tons and rice at more than 90,000 tons on a monthly basis. The Shiite province of Basra, 590 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, has five commercial ports and two oil ports: al-Maaqal, established in 1916 by the British forces and handed over to Iraqi authorities in 1937; and Faw, a small port on the al-Faw Peninsula near the Shatt al-Arab waterway and the Persian Gulf. In the early 1970s, Umm al-Qasr port was built, and in 1974, Khour al-Zubeir and Abu Fallous ports were established on the Shatt al-Arab. Basra is the cradle of the first civilization of Sumer. The city played an important role in early Islamic history. The area surrounding Basra has substantial petroleum resources and many oil wells. The city’s oil refinery has a production capacity of about 140,000 barrels per day (bpd). Basra is in a fertile agricultural region, with major products including rice, maize corn, barley, pearl millet, wheat and dates as well as livestock. A network of canals flowed through the city, giving it the nickname “The Venice of the Middle East” at least at high tide. AmR (S) 1