Afghan saffron growers call for larger export market

affron growers in war-torn Afghanistan are hoping for expanded export markets for their harvest, amid higher yields but lower prices, business leaders in the industry said.

"I am optimistic that China could be a major and profitable market for Afghan saffron if the government facilitates the export of our products to China," Bashir Ahmad Rashidi, head of the Saffron Producers Union of Afghanistan, told Xinhua.

Farmers in parts of Afghanistan have been attempting to replace growing poppies with saffron, and the western province of Herat has taken the lead in this regard. Many farmers have already begun growing the valuable crop.

Saffron production in Afghanistan, according to the Minister for Agriculture Assadullah Zamir, has been on a constant rise. Some 3.5 tonnes of saffron was harvested in 2015 and 6.5 tonnes in 2016.

The minister was hopeful that the country's saffron product would rise to 8 tonnes in the current year.

The major portion of the saffron was produced in Herat.

"No doubt, 90 percent of the country's saffron is produced in Herat, and scores of companies and firms have been operating in Herat to encourage saffron plantation, saffron processing and its broader business," Rashidi said.

Nevertheless, saffron growers in Herat have complained that a lack of market for their products have led to a drop in price of the valuable crop.

Describing saffron as "red gold", the director of a saffron processing company in Herat city, Omid Aminyar, said the price of saffron had fallen due to a lack of market and the status quo would discourage the farmers to grow more.

The price of 1 kg of saffron was 130,000 afghanis ($1,910) last year. But in the current year it dropped considerably to 70,000 afghanis per kg, according to locals involved in the saffron business.

Many Afghans believe that if the government better encouraged and supported the farmers, and helped them find markets for their legal products, especially for saffron, it would eventually give confidence to farmers to give up poppy cultivation and switch to saffron.

In insurgency-plagued Afghanistan, the opium-producing poppies harvest reached 4,800 tonnes in 2016, an increase of 43 percent against 3,300 tonnes of opium poppies harvested in 2015.