KABUL - Afghanistan sent 50 tonnes of dried fruit through land to Canada for the first time and the shipment is scheduled to reach there in less than 40 days.
Hashmatullah Ghafoori, deputy Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and livestock, on the occasion in Kabul’s Badam Bagh, said private company “Raz Food” was taking the country’s first shipment of 50 tonnes of dried fruit from Kabul to Candida.
He said the shipment would first reach Turkey from Uzbekistan and then depart for Canada.
He said large quantities of the country’s agriculture products could not be exported last year due to the outbreak of coronavirus in the world; but efforts were underway to expert these items to pre-determined destinations as the situation improved.
He asked the country’s private sector to work more on processing and packaging in order to meet international standards, promising government’s help in this area.
According to him, the Afghan government has established good ties with the Gulf countries, Central Asia, and South Asia and has facilitated exports.
Jalaluddin Saeed, an adviser to the president, said the certain company was expected to export Afghan dried fruits to Australia in the near future.
According to him, the President of Afghanistan has set a goal to increase the country’s exports from their current volume of less than $500 million to more than $2 billion in the next two years.
Abdul Sattar Ghafari, the head Razfood company, said in today’s meeting that the 50-tonne shipment contained 14 types of dried fruits worth more than $500,000.
In response to a question, he said that exports through land were cost-effective but there were only security problems which the government should address.
Ghaffari added: “As Afghanistan does not have an air-corridor with Canada, a kilogram of export item costs about seven dollars, which is much higher than the land route.”
HujatullahFazli, President of the Afghanistan International Chamber of Commerce, who attended today’s meeting, expressed hope that this year would be full of achievements in the export sector for Afghanistan.
According to him, all Afghanistan’s exports, especially fresh and dried fruits, have a good reputation in the world markets and Afghan traders need to work hard on standardization their products to attract more global buyers.
He said that if Afghan traders had access to more markets, exports would increase and the government would reach its target. (Pajhwok)