It has been a very significant week for my company AHG Holding Group as we opened a new phosphate fertiliser plant in Basra.
This redevelopment of a redundant site has taken many years to modernise and it was my great honour to give the Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and his team a tour of the new facility.
With a capacity of 500,000 tonnes per year, it will make a huge impact to the internal market of Iraq furthering it’s self-sufficiency and food security whilst dramatically reducing costs for the agriculture sector.
With political benefits including boosts to rural jobs within the agriculture sector, this development illustrates the full benefits of collaboration between the government, private sector and international expertise.
My long-standing friend and work colleague Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, the UK’s trade envoy to Iraq said
“I am delighted that AAA Holdings, a British-Iraqi company, are making such rapid expansion in the agricultural markets. Under Dr Selman, they epitomise the best of both nations working together for the benefit of Iraq, in a modern, innovative and competitive manner.”
With another significant development to my ambition to help create food security for the world, the focus will now return to optimisation of resources and the role of AI in this efficiency.