Iraq to make biofuels out of rotting dates

By Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's prime minister has approved a project by a United Arab Emirates-based company to make biofuel from dates that would otherwise be wasted because they have started to perish, Iraqi officials said on Sunday.

Iraq has the world's third largest oil reserves but its crumbling farm sector, which has suffered from decades of sanctions, isolation and war, is the country's leading employer.

A long drought has conspired with entrenched problems like high soil salinity, poor irrigation practices and a lack of proper seeds and fertiliser to hold back domestic farming and make Iraq heavily dependent on grain imports. Iraqi officials are keen to do anything to boost agricultural productivity.

"This project will support Iraq's economy by encouraging farmers to expand date palms farms", a cabinet statement said, announcing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's approval of it.

Iraq, whose date palm plantations dot the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in an otherwise parched landscape, used to be a leading date exporter. It exports a tiny amount at present, officials say.

Faroun Ahmed Hussein, head of the national date palm board, said the Emirati company would produce bioethanol from dates that farmers cannot export because they are starting to rot. It would be used domestically at first, then possibly later exported.

He declined to name the company, estimate the cost of the project or say how much bioethanol it was expected to produce.