(MENAFN- Pajhwok Afghan News)
KABUL (Pajhwok): Gardeners in central Maidan Wardak province have complained about the non-availability of proper markets for apples saying 150,000 tonnes of apples produced this year 10 percent of which is export, one percent is stored and major portion is sold at a low rate or spoiled.
Gardeners and agricultural analysts are urging the government to build cold storage facilities and juice factories for apples and find a stable international market for them. Officials say they are making efforts in this regard.
Apples are a particularly popular agricultural product in Maidan Wardak province, located west of the capital Kabul. Many residents of various districts of the province have apple orchards and use them to meet their daily needs.
Mawlavi Niyaz Mohammad Abid, head of the Agriculture and Irrigation Department said the province's apple harvest has reached 150,000 metric tonnes, a 25 percent increase compared to last year
According to him, the distribution of improved seeds and chemical fertilizers to gardeners and farmers, implementation of development programs for them, as well as the availability of sufficient water played an important role in increasing fruit yields.
Gardeners complain lack of cold storage, low apple price
Some gardeners in Maidan Wardak province told Pajhwok Afghan News that there is no suitable market for selling their apples and that not enough standard cold storage facilities have been built in the province to store them .
Purdal Khan Sahak, a resident of the Sahak area in the Nerkh district, said that his apple harvest was good this year and he harvested about 14 tons apples.
He, however, said until now he could sell 2.8 tonnes of apple to pay off his immediate debt. Seven kilograms of apple was sold at 70 afs, he added.
“The best apple in the orchard is sold for 120 Afghanis, but it is not possible for the entire orchard to be the best. There are also weak apples, which are not sold at that price. However, if all the apples are sold for 120 Afghanis, the gardener will have a few rupees left over, but if the apples are sold for 80 or 100 Afghanis, not only does it not meet its expenses, but the gardener's annual income is also wasted,” he said.
Sahak said he hoped that the remaining apples will be sold at a slightly higher price to at least cover his expenses.
“We have devoted the entire year to this garden and apples, borrowing everything from the store all year round, but when the end of the year and harvest time arrives, the markets are so bad that no one even bothers to look at them,” he said.
Sahak said:“I have dug the earth in the garden and put apples in it, so naturally, the apple that is blemished, or has fallen to the ground while picking, or has been eaten by birds, is among the other apples, so it causes the other apples to spoil; my apples have also spoiled, but not many, but overall, this type of storage has up to fifteen percent waste and damage.”
Similarly, Sayed Abdullah Rufi, a resident of the Takana area of Jalrez district of the province, says that his apple harvest is good this year, but he has not sold it yet due to low prices.
He said:“This year I have 168 tonnes of apple, but no buyer offered the price above 100 afs for seven kilograms, if I sell it at this price it could not meet its expenditures.”
He who stored his apples in the orchard and covered them with tarpaulin and plastic said:“There is a saying that it worth nothing, this year apples worth nothing, let's see to what extent this proverb is correct.”
Both gardeners have asked the government to build standard cold storage facilities for them so that apples can be stored in a standard manner.
In addition, a stable international market should be found for apples and other fruits so that apples and all fruits can be sold at a price that covers their costs and leaves some profit for the orchardists.
They say that due to the lack of standard cold storage facilities, gardeners either store their apples in a room or hide them in a plastic bag in the garden or on the field, but this method does not preserve them properly; some of them rot, others lose weight, and their taste deteriorates.
Cold store and juice factor construction mandatory: Analysts
Eng. Zabihullah Fazli, an agriculture analyst and former technical and profession head of the Nangarhar Canal Department, said the biggest problem facing farmers and gardeners, not only in Maidan Wardak, but throughout the country, is the lack of standard and sufficient cold storage facilities, due to farmers and gardeners sell their fruits and other agricultural products at low prices.
According to him, gardeners are suffering greatly from this because when the time comes to harvest, the prices of fruits and other agricultural products drop by half, and the gardeners cannot cover the expenses they have incurred on their gardens and fields.
He added that traditional storage method of fruits also caused fruit to rotten, lose weight, and deteriorate in quality, causing Afghan fruits to lose their place in the global market.
Fazli asked the Islamic Emirate to pay attention to building cold storage facilities in the country, to encourage the country's national traders to build various fruit juice factories in addition to building cold storage facilities in the country, and to find a stable international market for Afghan fruits.
He said“Our farmers or traders who pack fruit in cartons or bags, unfortunately, sometimes put good apples or other fruits at the beginning and end and put bad ones in the middle, this type of packaging cannot find a market at home or abroad; any fruit, especially apples, that is offered abroad or to Afghan markets, must be packaged in a standard way and presented to the market as a single product”.
Fazli said that if the fruit is transported to foreign markets according to international standards and the remaining fruit is transported to juice factories in the country, then the fruit would have a stable and reasonable price and will also find a place in the market.
More cold storages to be built: Official
Agriculture Department Director Mawlavi Niyaz Mohammad Abid said that 150,000 tonnes of apples produced in the province.
He admitted that there was a problem in storing apples and added that there was two modern cold storage facilities in Maidan Wardak, one with a capacity of 500 metric tons and the other with a capacity of 1,000 metric tons of fruit.
Mawlavi Abid added:“The Islamic Emirate is using all its resources to increase the number of cold storage facilities so that apples can be stored and delivered to the market at the right time.”
Without giving details, he expressed hope that the number of standard cold storage facilities in Maidan Wardak would increase next year.
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