WFP asks to buy 50,000 T wheat from Turkey-source
"The World Food Programme wanted us to ready 50,000 tonnes of milling wheat," the source said. "They also asked Syria to buy about 100,000 tonnes of milling wheat," he said.
The source said a government decree authorising the sale of wheat was pending.
The United Nations WFP plans to support a food distribution system capable of meeting the needs of the entire population of Iraq, which has been invaded by U.S.-led forces.
Sixty percent of Iraq’s 26 million people depended directly on the U.N-backed "oil-for-food programme", which allowed proceeds from Iraq’s oil sales to be used to buy food and other basic needs.
Last week, the WFP bought some 160,000 tonnes of flour from Middle Eastern and European countries, including Turkey.
"In our ongoing operations, some of the wheat is coming from Turkey. Turkey is one of the places we procure from," WFP spokeswoman Heather Hill told Reuters.
Asked where the wheat would go, Hill said: "It would go where it is needed. The purchase is for Iraq in general."
In late February, Turkish Agriculture Minister Sami Guclu said Turkey has more than one million tonnes of milling wheat in its stock, sufficient to cover its needs during a U.S.-led was in Iraq.