While farmers are harvesting their crops, the local government of Kurdistan will is imposing a tax on some agricultural crop imports to boost sales of local fruits and vegetables while they are in season.
The tax began at the beginning of June
“We have a list of taxes that we follow throughout the year. The imports to be taxed include tomatoes, watermelon, pepper, troze [a type of cucumber], eggplant, and peaches. For every kilogram of these products, 250 Iraqi Dinars will be imposed,” Abdulstar Majid, the Kurdistan Region’s minister of agriculture, said.
The central government in Baghdad is also imposing restrictions on imports to protect local production. The spokesperson for the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture, Hamid Naif, announced that they have banned imports of tomatoes and watermelons to Iraq.