Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Iraq’s trade ministry bought 35 percent more rice from local producers in the last season, compared with the previous one, according to Hassan Ibrahim, director general of Iraq’s Grain Board.

The ministry purchased 112,000 metric tons of rice from local producers in the 2011-12 season, up from 83,000 tons the previous year, he said in a telephone interview in Baghdad yesterday. The trade ministry set its purchasing price at 750,000 dinars ($643.78) a ton, he said.

Iraq consumes about 1.25 million tons of rice a year, mostly imported, Ibrahim said in a Dec. 6 interview.

--With assistance from Nayla Razzouk in Dubai. Editors: Sharon Lindores, Nicholas Larkin

To contact the reporter on this story: Khalid Al-Ansary in Baghdad, through the Dubai newsroom at kalansary@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net