Farmers Won’t Benefit, if Transit Issues inst Solved: Officials

Officials in chamber of commerce of Afghanistan have stated that if the Pakistan transit issues don’t get resolved 110 thousand tons of fresh fruits will be rotten in current year 2015, which is huge loss for Afghan farmers.

Officials in exporting department of chamber of commerce by expressing concerns, saying this year the fresh fruits harvest increased 60 tons, comparing to last year.

Afghan businessmen have been suffering from different existed challenges in Torkham port, saying taking bribes on custom department in Pakistan are the main issues.

Responsible for exporting department in chamber of commerce Mirzaman Popal said,” we witness 25 % of increasing of fresh fruits,110 thousand fresh fruits are ready to be exported to foreign markets,we are still concerned over Pakistan for not fulfilling their commitments to remove issues causing Afghanistan’s exported goods to be damaged.”

Afghanistan’s apricots, Grapes, and Pomegranate are exported to Europe, India, and United Arab Emirates.

The other Afghan fruits businessman Haji Najwat said,” exporting process of fresh Fruits from Afghanistan is with full of problems, we have to pay three times for municipalities, tolerate other issues on the way till we see our fruits in International markets.”

As we predicated the cultivation of Afghanistan fresh fruits will be increased up to 170 thousand tons by coming 2020, we still need to find best markets for our products,if our problems is removed we could easily get our fruits to foreign markets Mirzaman Popal head of exporting in chamber of commerce added.

Air transportation with heavy charges is the other problem for Afghan businessmen, they are demanding both Afghanistan-Pakistan to pave better plat form for businesses.

Reported by Wahid Nawisa