PM's advisor: The initiative to export dates to China achieves two important goals for Iraq

Baghdad - INA

The financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Mudhar Mohammed Salih, confirmed today, Thursday, that the initiative to export dates to China is a positive step towards developing the palm sector in Iraq, noting that the initiative achieves two important goals for Iraq.

Salih told the Iraqi News Agency (INA): "The initiative to export dates to China is a positive step that encourages date producers in our country to gradually develop the export market and at the same time leads to interest in palm cultivation on important commercial scales."

He continued, "However, in light of the oil exports to China, which exceed $23 billion annually, they are not of any significant importance at present, unless non-oil exports reach levels that compete with oil exports."

He explained that "China, both the government and the people, still remember the role of Iraqi dates, which the Chinese called at that time (the fruit of saving Iraq from famine), during which thousands of tons of Basra dates were exported to China during the years of the Great Famine between the years (1959-1961), which was one of the most severe famines in modern Chinese history, and caused the death of millions of people."

It is noteworthy that Iraq exported 6,500 tons of dates to China, worth $2 million, in the first half of 2024.