GLOBALink | China's love of pine nuts helps Afghan exporters

KABUL, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Established in 2015, Zmarai Gayanwal Co., Ltd., a pine nut processing and export company in Kabul, now has over 100 people working for the company.

With between 28,000 and 38,000 U.S. dollars per ton, the company exported 650 tons of nuts to China last year and is planning to export 950 tons in 2022.

Khalil Rashid, managing director of a pine nuts processing and export company, highlighted that the pine-nut trade with China had created jobs for thousands of people in his country.

Pine cones are harvested 10 days before they open. The cones are dried in the sun for 20 days and then smashed to release the nuts which are sorted by hand. It takes time and persistence to extract the nuts from the cones, justifying the high price.

According to aid agencies, more than 22 million Afghans will face severe food shortages in Afghanistan this winter. Without overseas assistance, a humanitarian catastrophe threatens.

Exports in Afghanistan had been disrupted last year, but to China at least, trade more or less resumed at the end of October with the first air shipment of 45 tons. Thousands of Afghans are now working with more than a dozen nut processing factories.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service