Iraq to ban tomato imports until October, farmers say, after days of road blocks

SULAYMANIYAH — Iraq has agreed to ban tomato imports through all border crossings until Oct. 20, a farmers’ representative said from Baghdad, after growers in Penjwen shut the district’s wholesale market, stopped harvesting and began turning back lorries themselves.

“We are now in Baghdad. We have reached an agreement with the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture to ban the import of tomatoes until Oct. 20, 2026,” said Salman Sadiq, who represents farmers in the Soran Autonomous Administration, adding that the ban applies across Iraq and took effect on Wednesday. The Agriculture Ministry has not issued a statement and 964media has not seen the decision.

In Penjwen, no produce was harvested on Wednesday and the wholesale market stayed shut, said Bakhtiar Qadir of the Penjwen Farmers Council. “The gathering of Penjwen farmers is against the import of foreign tomatoes and the falling prices of local produce,” he said. Farmers have been stopping lorries on the Penjwen-Sulaymaniyah road since Tuesday night, initially only those carrying tomatoes and from Wednesday morning all cargo lorries, closing the road to them. “Movement by residents and small vehicles is normal,” Qadir said, and the protest would continue.

Local tomatoes have fallen below 450 dinars a kilo, about 28 cents, from around 750 a week ago. Growers say they would accept 500. They blocked the road outside the wholesale market on Tuesday and called for it to close over imports coming through the Parwez Khan crossing with Iran, having blocked the Garmik-Penjwen road last week. District mayor Adnan Kaka-Rash said then that he would take the matter up with border authorities, and farmers say the imports continued.

Growers in Soran, in Erbil governorate, have left tomatoes unpicked for nearly five days rather than sell at current prices.