By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq is suffering a shortage of state-supplied wheat, sugar and rice because of logistics and security problems, officials and traders say. Most Iraqis, already in the grip of a fuel and electricity crisis, have depended on monthly rations since the Saddam Hussein era under a system meant to lessen the crushing impact of the 1990-2003 sanctions that helped destroy the economy.
"We have been warning Iraqi officials for months that Iraq was heading for shortages. They insisted on middlemen and companies that cannot deliver," a market insider said on Wednesday.
"They blame security. But there are 1,000 trucks that enter Iraq from Jordan every day alone and yet wheat shipments sit in the port of Aqaba for eternity."
Food is still available on the market, but the prices of some staples have doubled as government warehouses run low on stock.
The problems could hurt the U.S.-backed government politically and lessen the chances of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi returning to power after next month's elections.
Several districts of Baghdad have not received rice and sugar rations this month. The wheat flour ration has fallen from nine kilos per family to eight.
The market price of rice has doubled to 1,000 dinars (36 pence) per kg and sugar has risen to 750 dinars from 600. A loaf of bread now costs 20 percent more at 60 dinars.
An international trader said political interference had marred operations at the trade ministry, which ran a fairly efficient rations distribution system under sanctions.
But Ahmed al-Mukhtar, the ministry's head of external affairs, said there was no crisis and that security was the reason behind what he described as "delay" in the distribution of some components of the rations.
"The main issue is security. There is no problem as far as tenders and procurement," Mukhtar told Reuters.
Iraq food procurement is still a closely guarded secret, despite efforts by Trade Minister Mohammad al-Jiboury to introduce transparency.
Winning companies are not announced and there is suspicion that tenders are sometimes issued after suppliers have been already chosen.
Iraq imports around three million tonnes of wheat a year and around the one million tonnes of rice, making the country a player on the world market.
The rations include imported peas, lentils, cooking oil, soap, cheese and tea.
Shipments come through Umm Qasr and ports in Jordan and Syria. Umm Qasr is suffering a lack of equipment and congestion despite U.S. work to restore it.
Iraq has already paid millions of dollars to Australia, its main wheat supplier after the United States, in demurrage charges.
Banditry also has disrupted traffic on highways from Umm Qasr to Baghdad and from Jordan to the capital. Insurgents operating in western and central Iraq have stopped trucks and detained drivers they suspected of delivering supply for U.S. forces or contactors working on American-funded projects.
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