Business
Badakhshan farmers ditch poppies in favor of asafetida
Badakhshan’s department of agriculture and livestock officials said Thursday that in the past year, more than 5,000 hectares of land has been used in the province to cultivate asafetida – in a move away from poppy farming.
According to local officials, there has been a marked increase in cultivating asafetida among farmers.
“In (solar year) 1401, about 5,000 to 5,200 hectares of land were used to plant asafetida in Badakhshan province and people’s interest is very high,” said Nisar Ahmad Mahir, head of the agriculture directorate in Badakhshan.
Farmers in Badakhshan also say they have switched to cultivating asafetida instead of poppies over the past few years.
Asafetida is the resin collected from the ferula plant and is widely used for medicinal purposes. Farmers meanwhile earn more money from asafetida than from other crops.
“In the past, opium was cultivated on these lands, and now we have planted asafetida seeds instead. We imported one hundred kilograms of asafetida seeds from Tajikistan,” said a farmer.
“We no longer grow opium because it is forbidden and harmful,” said another farmer.
Meanwhile, the anti-narcotics management officials in Badakhshan have said that they have started a campaign to destroy poppy fields and so far, they have cleared nearly five hundred acres of poppies in Jurm and Argo districts.
Business
Azizi calls on Malaysian investors to invest in Afghanistan
Nooruddin Azizi, Acting Minister of Commerce and Industry, met with representatives from the ministries of foreign affairs, defense and interior of Malaysia, along with other senior officials, on Wednesday and called on Malaysians to invest in Afghanistan.
The visiting delegation is being led by senior diplomat Dr. Shazelina Zainul Abidin.
According to the IEA’s foreign ministry, the two sides discussed bilateral trade, holding a business communication conference to strengthen trade relations between the two countries, the trade balance between Afghanistan and Malaysia, and creating a market for Afghan products, including carpets, cotton, and minerals.
According to the ministry, at the end of the meeting, the Acting Minister emphasized the increase of investment from regional countries in Afghanistan and called on Malaysian investors to also invest in Afghanistan.
Business
Afghanistan starts exporting via railway to Turkey
The Ministry of Interior says that Afghanistan has started exporting goods to Turkey via the Herat-Khaf railway line.
In a post on X, the ministry said: “Afghanistan’s exports to Turkey started in a calm atmosphere through the Herat-Khaf railway line.”
The ministry added that one train will run daily for a month and then two trains will run daily.
According to the ministry, the security of Khaf-Herat railway line is provided by the guards of the National Public Protection Agency.
Khaf-Herat railway project not only connects Iran and Afghanistan by rail, but also completes a 2,000-kilometer route along the east-west rail corridor from China, through Uzbekistan, to Afghanistan, to Iran, and on to Turkey and Europe.
As a landlocked country, this railway network will provide a safe route to connect with Europe via Iran’s railway network and Iran’s southern ports.
This railway line is strategic for trade between Iran and Afghanistan and will allow six million tons of goods to be sent between the two countries.
Business
Afghanistan, Kazakhstan to hold joint expo in Kabul
A joint expo between Afghanistan and Kazakhstan will be held in Kabul in the next four days, officials said on Sunday.
Officials of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce said that the two-day expo will be held for the purpose of expanding and strengthening trade relations between the two countries.
“This expo will be held as a follow-up of the Kazakh-Afghan international expo, which was held in the city of Astana, Kazakhstan, with the participation of a large delegation of the government and the private sector of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” Abdulsalam Javad Akhundzadeh, the spokesman of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, said.
“At this expo, domestic products from different sectors of Afghanistan and the Republic of Kazakhstan will be put on display for two days.”
According to officials, 40 large Kazakh companies, and 40 large Afghan companies will exhibit their products.
Mohammad Saber Latifi, head of the Afghanistan International Expo Center, said that fruits, minerals and commercial services will be displayed at the expo.
During the expo, various memorandums of understanding for the trade of goods are also expected to be signed by companies.
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