Pakistani trader Gul Shah had taken a pomegranate orchard in Kandahar on a two-crore-rupee lease. Just when his two vehicles had reached Pakistan, the Chaman border was closed on the night of October 13. He could no longer bring the fruit from his orchard to Pakistan, so he had to sell the remaining crop in Afghan markets, where he says he received a price of only 80 to 100 Pakistani rupees per kilogram for pomegranates.
On the other hand, due to extremely limited supply in Pakistan, pomegranate prices have skyrocketed. Gul Shah claims that the Pakistan-Afghanistan border closure caused him a loss of one crore rupees.“Like me, there are hundreds of Pakistani traders who leased pomegranate orchards in Afghanistan this year, and they are also facing the same situation.”Former President of the Pakistan Chamber of Commerce, Haji Daru Khan Achakzai, says that Pakistani traders, as usual, had leased pomegranate orchards in Afghanistan several months before the harvest and had also made advance payments to local farmers. He believes that the suspension of trade has caused the biggest losses to people in Balochistan, especially Chaman.
Several Afghan traders in Chaman told Lok Sujag, on the condition of anonymity, that the price of pomegranates in Afghan markets has now fallen to only 500 rupees per crate (around 6 to 7 kilograms), causing huge losses for them and farmers because Afghanistan has still not been able to arrange access to markets in other countries besides Pakistan.Over the past five years, Pakistan has imported an average of more than 40,000 tonnes of pomegranates annually from Afghanistan.
This year too, before the border closure, Pakistan imported around 11,000 metric tonnes of pomegranates from Afghanistan.
The orchards of Qila Abdullah were more than a source of fruit—they supported the livelihoods of thousands. But after devastating floods damaged the region's irrigation system, the local economy began to wither, leaving growers and workers struggling to recover.
