Iraq, once a regional breadbasket, is now one of the world’s biggest importers of rice and wheat, and its grain tenders are among the most competitive in the global market, with a wide range of exporters vying to win deals.

The country issued a tender on Sept. 20 to buy 100,000 tons of wheat — a figure usually signifying a required minimum.

An Australian exporter with direct knowledge of the talks later said it was possible Iraq could scale up the tender to 500,000 tons, with both US and Australian suppliers winning additional tonnage.

Hilow denied the possibility, however, saying 250,000 was enough to help cover domestic demand in 2011. He criticized the suggestion as a speculative attempt to inflate prices on the global market.

“We don’t have such plans, and we don’t need to buy this amount,” he said. “(The suggestion) was designed to raise international prices.”

Hilow said Iraq bought 100,000 tons of wheat from the United States, 100,000 tons from Australia and a further 50,000 tons from Ukraine.

Iraq is trying to revive its agricultural sector after years of war, economic sanctions and drought. Farming is plagued by high soil salinity, poor irrigation practices and a lack of proper seeds and fertilizer.

Most of its grain purchases are to supply a public food-rationing program.

With a population of around 30 million, Iraq consumes at least 1 million tons of rice annually and 4.5 million tons of wheat.

It has said it currently has around 1 million tons in grain reserves, enough to feed its people until early January 2011.

On the domestic market, Hilow said that wheat purchases from Iraqi farmers exceeded 1.5 million tons for the 2009-2010 farming season.