Saffron Importation to Afghanistan Banned
President M. Ashraf Ghani banned imports of saffron and its bulb with the aim to maintain the ‘global stance, quality and value of Afghan saffron’.
President M. Ashraf Ghani banned imports of saffron and its bulb with the aim to maintain the ‘global stance, quality and value of Afghan saffron’.
According to a statement by the Ministry of Agriculture, the decision was made following a proposition to the presidency by the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL).
“last year’s imports and smuggling of saffron and its bulb to the country have bedeviled expansion of saffron cultivations and exports abroad, said a statement carried by the agriculture Ministry.
“Smuggling and imports of saffron severely affected the extension of saffron cultivation and its significant achievements in the country that will also lead to a dissuasion of farmers in cultivating saffron.”
National Union of Saffron also had suggested restriction before saffron importation during recent meeting with President Ghani, the statement stressed.
Moreover, the MAIL said that saffron importation and its bulb will lead to reduction in Afghan saffron cost as well as it will spread diseases.
Afghanistan saffron has gained the ‘first position based on quality’, and importation of foreign saffron and its bulb will cause exportation of low quality saffron under the name of Afghanistan to abroad, which will stain the well-known quality of Afghan saffron, the statement added.
The importation of saffron and its bulb will make the private sector and its investors to lose interest in investing.
It is worth mentioning that the MAIL has increased saffron production from 3.5 tons to 10.6 tons as well as rose cultivation area of saffron from 1050 hectares to 5,250 hectares across the country in the past two years.
