Afghan growers seek larger market for profitable pine nuts

The pine nut growers in Afghanistan are hoping to further expand overseas market and earn a fair income in a bumper harvest, trying to shake off the negative impacts brought by COVID-19 and domestic turmoil.

Afghanistan is having a bumper harvest of pine nuts, with its output reaching 17,000 tons this year.

Harvesting and processing pine nuts has been a family business in every harvest season as a very important source of income. From pine cones to the ready-for-sale products, the fat-rich nuts need to go through multiple procedures.

The best pine nuts in the country gathered in the pine nut wholesale market in Kabul. The merchants and workers are busy cleaning, sorting and packaging them.

Pine nut trees grow in eight eastern provinces of Afghanistan, including Khost, Paktia, Paktika, Kapisa, Kunar, Nangarhar, Nuristan and Laghman.

The country’s northeastern mountains, where the average altitude is higher than 1,000 meters with lots of snow and sunlight, provide sound environment for pine trees with pine nuts of outstanding quality.

“Paktia people’s life depends on pine nuts because they don’ have land. The Urgun region in Paktia and the Khost Province are basically mountains, and locals harvest pine nuts from there,” said Abdul Wali, a pine nut trader.

“Pine nut is good for human body. That’s why we like to have it,” said Ahmad Jaweed, a customer.

Despite the good harvest, the pine nuts can hardly reach its essential overseas market due to the impact of COVID-19 and complicated domestic situation.

“The price is better than before. In the past, one kilo of pine nuts was 2,800 afghani to 3,000 afghani (about 30-32 U.S. dollars). But now it’s 1,700 A to 1,800 afghani (18.5-19.6 U.S dollars) because exporting them to other countries became difficult,” Jaweed said.

People in China helped out as a close neighbor earlier this month. During a live-streaming promotion event of the China International Import Expo (CIIE) on Nov 6, the influencers from China Media Group (CMG) and e-commerce companies sold 120,000 cans of pine nuts in minutes.

The Afghanistan Pine Nuts Production Union wrote a thanks letter to CMG. The pine nuts traders said that this business can not only bring in foreign exchanges to Afghanistan, but also provide large amounts of job opportunities.

“If we do pine nut business with China, I can tell you that around 50,000 people will have jobs in this field,” Wali said.

“From the economic point of view, it’s very beneficial for us,” Jaweed said.