Government urged to explore more pine nuts export markets

KHOST CITY (Pajhwok): Pine nuts businessmen in southeastern Khost province have demanded other market venues besides china to prevent smuggle of the dry fruit to Pakistan and benefit people associated with this business.

They said every year hundreds tonnes of pine nuts smuggled to Pakistan and they sold them in the international market under their own label due to which Afghan businessmen suffer million afs in losses annually.

According to the businessmen last year some pine nuts exported to China through the air corridor which is so far not sold.

According to the available information Khost and Loya Paktia pine nuts yield was down by half this year comparing to the past year. The reason behind reduced yield was hail and other natural disasters.

Afsar Ali Khan, one of the pine nuts businessmen, said he purchased pine nuts cones worth 30 million afs and said if pine nuts market in China remained cold he will suffer loss.

He said last year some pine nuts exported to China which are still unsold.

“Our first demand is that pine nuts should be sold on afghani currency here, pine nuts are sent to Pakistan from where the product is exported under Pakistan label, and there is need for market exploration so that pine nuts are exported Afghanistan,” he said.

Another pine nuts businessman Mirza Ali told Pajhwok Afghan News they did not want to send their pine nuts to Pakistan because they had to sell it at half rate.

He asked Afghan authorities to explore more market venues for pine nuts besides China.

“Pakistan want to purchase pine nuts at low rate, we want permanent route to export pine nuts to China,” he said.

According to some statistics, around 15,000 tonnes of pine nuts are harvested from jungles in Paktia and Paktika provinces. The rate of 52 kilograms of pine nuts is accounted for 100,000 afs.

Hundreds of vulnerable women and children are buys separate pine nuts seeds from its cones in front of the Administrative complex in southeastern Khost province.

They take the empty cones as wages for themselves at the end of the day.

Alam Khan, 55, is one of the workers who separate pine nuts from cones and work until 5:00 am in the evening.

He said: “I leave home at 6:30 in the morning. I arrive here at 7:00. I fill a sack with cones until the afternoon. I just do this. I will go back home in the afternoon.”

Nawab Ameerzai, head of the Khost Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Afghanistan exported other products besides pine nuts and said reliance should not be made only on Chinese market.

He said in order to address this issue the acting government should negotiate with other countries of the International Trade Organization to strengthen economic ties.

He said: “Only Chinese market is not sufficient, we have a lot of export and it should be exported other member state of the WTO which Afghanistan also a member, we want the government to interact and this interaction should be not only political but also economical.”

Khost Information and Cultural Affairs Director Shabir Ahmad Usmani said relevant government organisations strived to provide all facilities to pine nuts businessmen.

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