Shafaq News / Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region PM Barzani declared on Sunday that his government is working towards exporting goods produced and farmed locally to foreign countries.

This came in a speech that he gave during his inauguration of a modern silo and a project to store and produce agricultural staples and market wheat crops to farmers in al-Sulaymaniyah at a cost of USD 122 million.

Barzani said during his speech, “The inauguration of such projects reminds us that the Region’s Government fulfills all of its promises; this project does not only serve the interests of al-Sulaymaniyah’s farmers but benefits all of the regions farmers, as it completely ensures food security in Kurdistan.”

He expressed his hope to see other similar projects come to life in different sectors and added that the agricultural sector is a pillar of the economy of all countries.

Barzani added, “We shall keep inaugurating and developing projects that should generate thousands of work opportunities throughout Kurdistan; production should not be limited to the Region’s market, but we should thrive on exporting our products to foreign countries, rendering Kurdistan one of the main actors on the region’s trade scene.”

In turn, Haval Abu Bakr, the governor of al-Sulaymaniyah, said that those projects shall assure the farmers of the governorate, promote the Region’s economy, and contribute to reconstruction and rehabilitating the infrastructure of agricultural industry.

The Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources in the Region, Begard Talabani, said that agricultural production in the Region has increased compared to previous years. She added, “The Federal Government is unfair in its practices and discriminates against wheat crops from the Kurdistan Region, and still hasn’t indicated the percentages that it will receive from its farmers, whereas farmers from the southern and central regions of Iraq are not encountering any problem delivering their crops to silos.”