Afghan dry fruits fail to impress Amritsar traders

Amritsar, October 18

Importers are not impressed with the quality of dry fruit being imported from Afghanistan after a plenty of crops got damaged due to heavy showers in early September.

Anil Mehra, an importer, said major damage was caused to the crops being grown in the Kandhar area. This area is rich in producing plenty of dry fruit varieties. This region’s crops such as figs, manaqa, raisins, kishmish and others got damaged. Consequently, they reduced the value of some of the commodities. For example, 1-kg fig was now available at Rs 500, which was sold at Rs 800 last year.

Import of Afghan dry fruits starts every year in August and lasts up to April. Ahead of the winter season, Indian importers start taking consignments.

A majority of these consignments are procured by Delhi-based importers and MNCs, which display these in their pan-India stores. Importers sell these dry fruits in the markets of Hyderabad, Mumbai and Gujarat.

BK Bajaj, another dry fruit trader, said international liquidity transfer capability of Afghanistan-based banks streamlined with the passage of time. Yet some of the Afghan exporters prefer to get funds in the Gulf countries.