Abraham, Higgins, Graves Promote Sale of Louisiana Rice to Iraq

On Monday, Congressman Ralph Abraham, M.D., R-Alto, released the text of a letter he sent with Congressmen Higgins (R-LA) and Graves (R-LA) to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo encouraging him to work with the Iraqi Ministry of Trade in support of continued U.S. rice exports to Iraq. Abraham has led the congressional effort to improve the relationship between the U.S. and Iraq for more than two years with the goal of increasing U.S. rice exports to Iraq.

"Last year, Iraq purchased 154,000 metric tons of high-quality American rice, making Iraq our 6th largest export market. Not only do these sales greatly benefit our rice industry, but they help other industries in Louisiana who bag, load and ship the cargo, and provide great downstream economic benefits to the entire state," wrote Abraham, Higgins, and Graves.

"As our farmers are beginning to harvest this year’s rice, we wanted to remind you of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between our two governments in 2016 which commits the U.S. to providing a stable supply of U.S. rice to Iraq and for Iraq to tender for U.S. rice. Given that it has been several months since there has been an MOU tender and that rice is in great demand in Iraq, we would appreciate the State Department’s assistance working with Iraq’s Ministry of Trade for the issuance of a U.S. MOU tender in August."

To read the full text of the letter, click here.