Iraqi Poultry Producers Attend ASA-IM
Avian Influenza Seminar

         One hundred participants, including 50 Iraqis representing 100% of the major poultry companies in Iraq, attended an ASA-IM avian influenza seminar in Amman, Jordan. Several high level representatives from Iraq’s Ministry of Agriculture also attended. In addition to the Iraqi participants, the seminar was attended by key poultry producers from five other Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestinian Areas.

     ASA-IM has held 20 seminars in Amman for Iraqis in an effort to lend support to the Iraqi poultry and feed industries as they try to get back on their feet. Such seminars as the one just sponsored by ASA-IM, bring the latest best-practice nutrition and disease control concepts to all of the key Iraqi industry players. It is likely that 80 percent of Iraq's future poultry production will be in the Kurdish north where the climate and elevation is better for poultry production.

     Iraq was importing 500,000 metric ton per year of U.S. soybean meal prior to 1990 and the first Gulf War. Iraq has not yet commercially imported soybeans directly from the U.S. since 2003 but soybean meal crushed from U.S. beans in Syria and Lebanon and meal transiting from Jordan's port of Aqaba is reaching Iraq. Most of the meal coming into northern Iraq is coming via Turkey, which is itself a major buyer of U.S. beans and meal. It is hoped that once the security situation improves and a new commodities credit program is in place, that Iraq will again be one of the region's biggest buyers of U.S. soy.

Iraqi Poultry Producers, along with ASA-IM Regional Director Chris Andrew and U.S. Consultants, in attendance at ASA/IM-sponsored Avian Influenza Seminar held in Amman, Jordan.