Pomegranates have long been the pride of Afghan agriculture, but have now become a weapon in international-led efforts to curb opium production and fight the rural poverty that is feeding the Taliban insurgency. Demand for the fruit has risen steeply in the West on the back of its fabled health-giving properties. Now, American agricultural advisers are working with the Afghan government to help farmers tap that demand and earn an alternative livelihood to poppy cultivation by showing how, with marketing and packaging, they can raise prices.
Haji Yakut says his pomegranates are now fetching seven times the price they sold for 10 years ago, because he has been introduced to international buyers. "Kandahar is the home of pomegranates. The shape and quality here are very good," he says. "Before we didn't get any income from pomegranates but now we are getting more than we thought possible."
Afghan pomegranates are so renowned in India and Pakistan for their taste that neighbouring growers have been accused of passing off their inferior fruit as Kandahari produce.
Thirty years of conflict had shattered established orchards and irrigation streams, broken links with former buyers and scared off international traders. Opium – which is hardy and keeps for years – became a better option.
USAID, the American government development agency, is trying to reverse that trend as it wages war against an opium trade that is fostering corruption and paying millions to the Taliban. Agricultural advisers are introducing Afghan farmers to buyers in India, Pakistan, the Gulf and Europe, hosting trade delegations and organising trade missions. Growers are being taught to sort, grade and package fruit to meet international requirements and shown how to control aphids and pests.
Only 10 per cent of Afghan pomegranates are considered export quality, but the opening of Afghanistan's first fruit juice factory has given farmers the option to sell fruit for pulping. Haji Yakut's local pomegranate association has already sold 300 tons to the Omaid Bahar factory on the outskirts of Kabul. Mustafa Sadiq, owner of Omaid Bahar, says: "We have more than 40 varieties of pomegranate in Afghanistan, but as a landlocked country we always had difficulty exporting fresh fruit."
In February, Pomegreat, the UK pomegranate juice market leader, signed a provisional £1.5 million agreement for 500 tons of concentrate and 500 tons of fresh fruit. Even so, the international community knows that progress in persuading farmers to abandon poppy cultivation has more to do with falling opium prices than the intrinsic attraction of alternative crops. Farm gate opium prices have fallen from around £70 a pound to £25 on the back of bumper harvests. Consequently, production fell by a fifth last year.
Keen to promote this long-term view, USAID is nurturing more than 1.4 million saplings in eastern Afghanistan for farmers to plant new orchards. Haji Yakut is certain that more farmers will follow his lead. "Business is very strong. For thirty years we have only seen war and terrorism in our country, but we have always had this fruit and now foreigners want to buy them again. It is a blessing for us."
