According to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MoIC), Afghanistan has exported at least 2,000 tons of pine nuts worth $23 million in the past five months.
According to the officials of this ministry, Afghanistan pine nuts are mostly exported to China, Pakistan, India, Italy, United Arab Emirates, and the USA.
Akhundzada Abdul Salam Jawad, a spokesman for the ministry, said that 1,000 tons of pine nuts have been exported via air corridors.
“We have exported 2,100 tons of pine nuts through the air and land corridors, the monetary value of which is about 23 million dollars, which goes to China, Pakistan, India, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States,” said Akhundzada Abdul Salam Jawad.
Meanwhile, some traders said that the lack of a regular air corridor program and the lack of cold storage fot pine nuts are the biggest challenges.
“We urge the Islamic Emirate to provide a means to transfer pine nuts to European countries by land,” said Zalmai Azimi, a trader.
“Lack of a regular export program and finally the lack of regular cold storage are still the main problems,” said Mahboob Ullah Mohammadi, a trader.
Some economists believe that increasing the exports of pine nuts plays an important role in increasing the country’s income.
“Previously, this process was done in other countries, but fortunately, now we have processing factories inside the country,” said Azrakhsh Hafizi, an economist.
Based on the numbers of the pine nuts union, Afghanistan’s pine nut yield will reach more than 10,000 tons this year, most of which are obtained from Khost and Paktia.
