A number of traders on Monday said tons of fresh fruit has gone to waste at the Hamid Karzai International Airport because of the delay in cargo flights to India.

The traders said 42 tons of fresh fruit was transported to the airport on Friday and was scheduled to have been flown out on Saturday.

However this did not happen. Already 12 tons of apricots has been lost. 

Traders on Monday called for immediate action. 

“(The produce) was some fresh fruits, apricot and watermelon. If we knew that the plane was not coming on Saturday we could have come on Sunday; we would have stored the fruit in cold storage," Sayed Mir Khan, head of the Qasim Sayed Mir fresh fruit company said.

Meanwhile, Arianna Afghan Airlines, that runs the cargo service to India, said they rent a plane from another company but do not have control over the flight schedules. 

“The plane is rented from someone else, when the plane is rented, then we do not have control over its flight schedule. So we cannot prepare the plane at a specified time,” said Ali Frogh, commercial deputy head of Ariana  Afghan Airlines.
Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) meanwhile said they are trying to resolve the problems in this regard.

“We followed the issue and have submitted our recommendations to government and government should take action in this regard. The private sector also announced their readiness to invest in this respect,” ACCI spokesman Seyam Pesarlai said.