ADM Rice sells 88,000 more tons of U.S. long grain rice to Iraq, totaling 220,000 tons in 2024-25. Iraq exceeds annual purchase agreement, boosting U.S. rice exports.

Forrest Laws

ADM Rice has sold 88,000 more metric tons of U.S. long grain milled rice to Iraq, bringing to 220,000 metric tons the amount purchased by Al Awees, the agency that buys and distributes grain for the Iraqi government, in 2024-25.

The sale means Al Awees has exceeded the 200,000 metric tons of rice it agreed to buy annually when it signed a memorandum of understanding with USA Rice in 2021. Al Awees’ purchases of rice had totaled 200,000 metric tons annually until last year.

“We are glad to see they are exceeding this year’s tonnage to make up for last year’s shortfall,” said Keith Glover, USA Rice chair and a rice miller from Stuttgart, Ark. “As we are looking at uncertainty in our export markets, these steady, reliable sales to Iraq are necessary for the vitality of our industry.”

U.S. rice sales to Iraq were put on hold last spring when the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control placed restrictions on dollar holdings by eight Iraqi banks, including one that provided financing for U.S. rice shipments.

Members of USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Service and the U.S. State Department worked out an agreement with the help of farm-state lawmakers with the OFAC to allow the banks access to dollars so the sales could resume last August.

Food baskets

As a result of the Memorandum of Understanding, U.S. rice is a major part of the food baskets the Iraqi government provides to 41 million of its citizens.

“The Iraqi people are import-dependent for much of their food, and without access to rice, a staple of their diets, middle- and low-income families will quickly move into a food insecure situation,” the lawmakers wrote to the director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control during negotiations to restart financing for rice shipments.

“We commend OFAC and the Department of Treasury for working with banks around the world to curb transactions related to fraud, money laundering and other illegal uses of U.S. currency,” the congressional letter said. “However, there must be other compliance steps that can be taken to thread the needle and provide support to banks that play a commercial role in financing substantial U.S. exports.”

Iraq is the second largest importer of U.S. long grain rice, the type grown primarily in the Midsouth states. Mexico is the largest importer of U.S. long grain rice with U.S. rice accounting for nearly 87% of Mexico’s rice needs in some years.

Published Date: March 24, 2025