Apple yield up but prices halve in Baghlan: Farmers

PUL-I-KHUMRI (Pajhwok): Farmers and traders in northern Baghlan province say this year’s apple harvest is satisfactory, but its price halved compared to last year.

The apples of Andarab district have a good market and reputation in northern provinces of the country and have good harvest this year.

Apple farmers say this year’s apples yield is very well than last year’s, but its prices have decreased by 50 percent.

Last year, apples harvest was low, but has good price. Seven kilograms of apple was sold for 180 afghanis, but this year, when the harvest is high, the price is declined and traders buy good quality apples for 80 afghanis per kg in the garden, Abdul Wali, a resident, said.

Mohammad Salim, another resident, complained he collected 5,600kilograms of apple from his garden, but a week had passed, the harvest remained unsold.

He explained there was no standard cold storage to store the collected apples in the province.

They asked the government to find domestic and foreign market for fruits and make standard cold rooms in the province.

This year’s apples prices are down due to low exports to foreign countries, an apple trader added.

According to Abdul Mudassir, another trader, Andarab apples have a good reputation in northern Balkh, Kunduz, Samangan and Sar-i-Pul provinces.

Meanwhile, head of seed promotion at Agriculture Department Abdulah Niazi accepted farmers’ problems and said export of fresh fruits had declined this year and also their prices had decreased.

Niazi told Pajhwok Afghan News there were seven cold storage rooms for fresh fruits in the province, but they were not standard.

A week ago, he shared with the Ministry of Agriculture a plan for construction of standard cold rooms. With their construction, facilities for keeping fresh fruits will be provided to farmers in the province.

hz/ma