London, Oct 04: Foreign firms are finding it hard to crack the Iraqi sugar market, despite emerging demand from private buyers in what was until recently a key importing nation, traders and analysts said. Aid supplies, currently administered under the UN World Food Programme (WFP), were reaching Iraq, but private Iraqi merchants were also seeking white sugar for commercial purposes.
A Middle East trader said a 12,500 tonne shipment of white sugar had arrived in the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr earlier this week. “Some people are trying to get sugar into Iraq and there are operators in countries like Jordan and Syria who had contacts in Iraq before the war and are starting to build on that,” a London-based trader said.
“It is a question of who your counter-party is and that is difficult in places like Iraq. The problem is at the moment that the regulations are not very workable in terms of what documentation is needed.” European traders said tightened sugar export rules had hit potential EU business to Iraq. A temporary ban by the EU on special sugar trade concessions for Serbia and Montenegro, aimed at countering fraud, came into effect earlier this year.

Traders from the bloc must prove their sugar is not destined for the Balkans when they are selling globally. They must supply proof of arrival of the sugar in the non-EU country rather than the previously required proof of export.
“We can’t ship sugar to Iraq due to the proof of destination requirements and if you cannot provide any documents you cannot sell anything other than unsubsidised sugar,” a European trader said.
“Given the situation in Iraq, why take the risk of (EU) penalties,” he added. Bureau Report