At least 50,000 tons of apples have been collected from Paktia province this year, which shows a fifteen percent increase compared to last year.

Gardeners in the province said that they are facing many challenges due to the lack of a market and a suitable place to store apple products.

Gardeners add that if a suitable market is not provided, their year of hard work will be wasted.

“The road to Pakistan is closed, the apple crop does not transfer to there, and the market is very bad, the people's economy is bad, all these products will be wasted in the cold weather,” said Naser Ahmadi, a gardener.

“There are no facilities and there is no place for these products, and the products have increased compared to last year and we do not have the facilities to store them,” said Hazrat Mohammad, another gardener.

But the officials of Paktia's Department of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock pledged that the efforts are aimed at marketing and said that they have reactivated some cold stores.

“In the marketing department, many times we talked with the Chamber of Commerce, industrialists, and traders, we shared the issues and made a lot of effort for marketing,” said Abdul Rawof Sayed, head of the department.

According to gardeners, last year, 7kg were sold for 150 or 200 Afghanis, but this year, 7kg of apples has a price of 60 to 100 Afghanis, which does not satisfy the consumption of gardeners.