Roots of Peace opens USAID-CHAMP Trade Office in Delhi, India providing export markets for Afghan farmers.

USAID-CHAMP Success Story

Creating Export Deals
Afghanistan Fresh Fruit Trade Office in India

Fresh Fruit Traders and Buyers at Opening of India Fresh Fruit Trade Office
Photo: Roots of Peace—CHAMP

Developing and securing new markets for Afghanistan Fresh Fruit is considered critical for the development of the Afghanistan agricultural sector—both to increase job opportunities in Afghanistan and as a platform for future agricultural growth into high value fresh produce products. Five companies and export organizations from Afghanistan attended the India Fresh Fruit Trade Office opening looking for ways to expand their export sales of high quality Afghanistan produce. They are especially interested in taking advantage of the nearby, huge and profitable India fresh fruit market. Afghanistan receives a high price for their products in Indian because their production is at different time of the year than the Indian production and is considered of the highest quality.

They turned to the USAID-CHAMP funded India Fresh Fruit Trade Office for assistance in developing this new and expanding market. The India Fresh Fruit Trade Office acts as a central point where Afghanistan fruit traders can gain access to the Indian market through business linkages, capacity-building services, and problem-solving trade facilitation. The India Fresh Fruit Trade Office put the fruit traders in touch with 19 new India buyers at the office opening. The office helped the two groups come together to understand the wonderful fresh products that Afghanistan has to offer. Samples of the Afghanistan produce were tried by all the participants with rave reviews about the quality and variety.

Everyone agreed that this produce would be in high demand in the Indian market. This is good news for the traders, the Afghanistan agricultural workers, and the Indian fresh fruit consumers.

Mr. Sayed Obaidullah Mahboob, President of Afghan Focus Ltd was one of the traders who attended the opening ceremony of the Afghan Trade office. He met a number of Indian buyers. A week later, Afghan Focus Ltd exported its first shipment of apricots with a total weight of 1.6 metric tons to New Delhi. Mr. Mahboob is reporting the deal was very profitable. The CHAMP project is now arranging shipments of apricots by reefer container from Wardak to New Delhi next week.

All companies attending the Trade office opening regard the office as an important first step towards entering the competitive but lucrative Indian market. Afghanistan fresh fruit sector has been successful in the past in exporting high quality products all over the world. They are set to again be one of the premier countries for supplying the highest quality fruit to the region. The Indian market is only one of many international markets Afghanistan is now selling to. They are selling into the United Arab Emirates, Europe, and Canada. These export markets are considered critical to the continued growth of Afghanistan’s fresh produce sector both to maintain job opportunities in Afghanistan and as a platform for future economic growth and stability. The India Fresh Fruit Office is now open for business to promote the hundreds of opportunities for sourcing the wonderful fresh fruit of Afghanistan.