Food shortages hit Iraqis

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http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5423598

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."

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