NAWAH Port Management to move food products from Gulf to Port of Basra

BASRA, Iraq – NAWAH Port Management (NPM) will now transfer a full spectrum of food cargo at its terminal at Port of Basra (Al Maqal Port), following the official approval by the Iraq government.  It will begin to receive foodstuff almost immediately from Jebel Ali and Hamriyah Ports in Dubai.

NPM is a business unit of North America Western Asia Holdings and has the only modernised container terminal at the Port of Basra. It has weekly vessel sailings from the United Arab Emirates calling upon its terminal located in downtown Basra along the Shatt Al Arab waterway.

Low level activity at the port resulting from the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s forced the Iraq government to exclude the Port of Basra in its earlier list of ports allowed to accept imported food products. Today’s latest government directive changes all of that, allowing local merchants as well as international firms to import foodstuffs – from dry goods to perishable items – directly into Basra’s urban centre.

“This is an important moment for Basra and Iraq writ large,” said Nicholas Kunesh, NPM’s president and CEO. “Given Iraq’s growing disposable income, particularly within the expanding middle class, demand is increasing to consume more types of food and at greater quantities. Therefore, the need for efficient, reliable movement of food into the country is becoming more and more paramount.”

“With the Port of Basra added to the list of approved Iraqi entry points for food, the challenges faced by the vast majority of us importing and selling everything from fruit juice to chicken will be greatly reduced,” said Hayder Abood Abdul Abaas, a local Basra merchant and owner of Iraqi Basra Company. “We’ve already seen a difference in getting general and containerised cargo moved into Basra through the Port of Basra. (Photo courtesy of Businesswire)