Lack of cold-rooms for agriculture products in Afghanistan not only results in the loss of significant quantities of products but an expensive trade back from Pakistan, farmers and officials tell Killid.
Lack of cold-rooms for agriculture products in Afghanistan not only results in the loss of significant quantities of products but an expensive trade back from Pakistan, farmers and officials tell Killid.Several traders interviewed for this report said they exported fresh fruits and vegetables to Pakistan in summer and early autumn only to re-import them in winter and early spring for higher prices.
‘In summers, fruits and vegetables are abundant and most are exported to Pakistan where they are stored in cold-rooms,” said Nek Mohammad, a fresh fruit vendor in Kabul. “In winters, when we face shortage of fresh fruits and vegetables, traders import the same products albeit in significantly higher prices,” he said.
Shafiaullah, another fruit vendor at Ahmad Shah Baba Mina market in Kabul, had similar concerns: “In summers, the fruits are very cheap as farmers cannot keep them and want to sell at whatever price, so traders buy and export them to Pakistan.” He gave cucumber as an example: “In summer a kilo of cucumber is about 10 Afghanis while in winter the price goes up to 40-80 Afghanis.” “We sold 7 kilos of domestic apples for 200 Afghanis in the summer but we purchase the same amount for over 1,100 Afghanis in the winter,” said Haji Moharam, a fresh and dry fruits vendor in Kabul city. Moharam also said that prices of tomatoes go up by 75 percent from summer to winter.
Most of the vendors said that Afghan and Pakistani traders were making high benefits due to lack of a functioning food industrial system in the country.
Consumers hit hardest
While traders might be reaping high benefits from expensive fruits and vegetables, the burden is disproportionately put on low income consumers.
“For God sake,” exclaimed Haji Abdullah, an elderly man who wanted to buy tomatoes, “I cannot afford buying them because they are more expensive than my entire day income.”
Some accuse the government of not doing enough either to invest itself in the food processing industry or attract private investment to bolster the sector.
“If only we have some cold-rooms in the country to store essential agriculture products, we not only would not face shortage of food in certain seasons but could also control prices,” said Mohammad Eqbal Niazi, an expert of macro-economics.
However, officials at the Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MCI) cited other problems which have inhibited the establishment of cold-rooms for agriculture products.
“Electricity is a major impediment which impedes the development of food industries,” Ghulam Rabani Haqiqatpal, an official from the MCI, told Killid.
?Jan Khan Alekozai, deputy chairman of the Chambers of Commerce, said investors were unwilling to invest in the food industry due to a lack of support from the government.
“50-60 percent of Afghanistan’s fruit products are exported abroad in cheap prices because farmers cannot store their products,” said Alekozai adding that the practice was damaging the Afghan economy.
Over 119,000 hectares of land in Afghanistan is covered by fruit-bearing trees and orchards and every year vegetable is grown on over 11,400 hectares of land across the country, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL). Afghanistan exported more than 35,000 tons of fresh fruits and over 72,000 tons of vegetables last year, MAIL said.
Annual fruit & vegetable productions in Afghanistan
Type of fruit Quantity
Grapes 492,000 Tones
Apple 62,000 Tones
Pear 1,000 Tones
Apricot 49,000 Tones
Pomegranates 58,000 Tones
Almond 8,220 Tones
Peach 1,4000 Tones
Orange 6,000 Tones
Citrus 1,200 Tones
Olive 6,600 tones
Total 698,020 Tones
Type of vegetables Quantity
Potatoes 205,000 Tones
Onion 78,000 Tones
Carrot 31,000 Tones
Other Vegetables 79,000 Tones
Total 393,000 Tones
