Study of Iraqi Kurdistan Stone Market

Iraq’s market is divided into northern and southern divisions, the northern division consists of Dohuk and Hawler, which imports stone from Turkey. This is because of two customs (Zakho & Ibrahim Khalil) that are the most important customs in terms of facilities. Early recognition and investment in this market and long-term planning by Turkey, has earned them the trust of the market. It should be noted that, Turkey’s export is not limited to this area only, but the stone market of whole Iraqi Kurdistan imports from Turkey. The southern division has border with Iran, and there are 2 boundary trading market located there, Bashmakh and Siran Band in Baneh; however only Bashmagh border is used for this purpose.

The only active quarry in Iraqi Kurdistan is called Halan, you can see some of the stones extracted from this quarry in figure 1.

Figure 1: Stones Extracted from Halan Quarry

There are two main problems about Iran stones:

• Lack of trust, this is because of wrong behavior from Iranian exporters and the low quality products they have exported
• Governments lack of investment in Iraqi Kurdistan’s stone market, and also there is not a decent way for exchanging money.

Different paying methods

• Credit Card
• Cooperative
• Paying in Advance

In respect to current situation and lack of trust in Iranian exporters, credit card method is the most secure method at the moment.

Building stone export company of Kerman province, is one of the active companies that export stone to Iraqi Kurdistan, which has started its activity since 2011. According to the conducted studies, the exported stone is supplied by quarries in Khorramabad, Isfahan, Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Kerman.

In terms of importance, cream Travertine comes first and then it comes to Granite and Marble.  Of course in this market, any other stone that is well marketed can be profitable.

Amount of exported stone to Iraqi Kurdistan is mentioned in the following table for 2013 and 2014:

Table 1: Exported Stone from Sanandaj Customs 2013-2014

Table 2: Exported Stone from Bashmagh Border 2013

 Table 3: Exported Stone from Bashmagh Border 2014