Iraq's local wheat harvest fell to 3.25 million tonnes in 2015 from 3.4 million last year as the country strives for self-sufficiency, the Iraqi Grain Board said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Local wheat production covers around 80 per cent of domestic consumption,” it said.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), however, put consumption at nearly double the rate of local production - around 6.3 million tonnes in 2015/16, down slightly from 6.5 million in 2014/15.

Islamic State, the jihadist group which declared an Islamic caliphate across parts of Syria and Iraq last summer, has seized fertile areas and controls territory that normally produces significant quantities of Iraq's wheat crop. - Reuters