MOSCOW- Russia will send wheat for tests to Iraq soon, Kseniya Bolomatova, deputy chief executive at state-controlled grain trader United Grain Company (UGC), told a conference in Moscow on Wednesday.

Iraq said in November that the country had over 5 million tonnes of strategic wheat reserves from its local crop, enough to last for a year. 

Russia, one of the world's largest exporters of wheat, is also working on the opening of a Japanese market for its wheat, Bolomatova added.

UGC said in a separate statement that Russia plans to organise a visit by Japanese flour millers to discuss the issue in the summer of 2021 - subject to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

(Reporting by Polina Devitt and Olga Popova; editing by Louise Heavens) ((Polina.Devitt@thomsonreuters.com))

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