AWB loses temporalily its monopoly

The Australian wheat exporter AWB is to temporarily lose its monopoly. AWB is the sole exporter of Australian wheat. But after reports that it paid bribes to the Saddam regime in Iraq, the situation was criticised.

The government said AWB would lose its power to veto exports for six months, reports the BBC. The threat that the monopoly would be abolished forever, was not executed. Rivals of AWB see opportunity to sell crops overseas.

AWB was one of the biggest suppliers of the United Nations Oil for Food program.