The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan and its aftermath have driven up prices of dry fruits at markets in Kolkata and across India. The world’s best quality almonds, raisins, figs, pistachios as well as precious spices like asafoetida, or hing, come from Afghanistan.
The dry fruit market was already affected due to last year’s Covid-19 lockdown. But now, the unrest in Afghanistan has affected import of dry fruits and is almost on the verge of being stopped.
Almonds, which were priced at Rs 600 per kg early in August, are now priced at Rs 950. The price of raisins has gone up to Rs 100 to Rs 150 per kg. Cooking spice hing, priced at Rs 1,400 per kg, is now being sold for over Rs 2,000.
A trader at Bara Bazar, the wholesale market in Kolkata, said, “This is just the beginning, prices will further go up in the coming days.”
Dry fruit trader Rajesh Gupta said, “We get mainly asafoetida, raisins, murakka and anjeer pista from Afghanistan. Afghani hing is the most expensive. Since the establishment of Taliban, flow of goods from there has stopped. As a result, there has been an increase in prices.”
Gupta said there were three types of raisins available in Afghanistan — black, green and raisins with seeds. The price of 1 kg of black raisins was Rs 220, which had now increased to Rs 320, while the price of green raisins had gone up from Rs 600 to Rs 800 per kg, he added.
He also said the price of murakka (raisins with seeds) had increased from Rs 300 to Rs 600 per kg, while anjeer was now being sold for Rs 950 to Rs 1,000 per kg. The price of pistachio had also gone up from Rs 1,200 per kg to Rs 1,800 per kg, he added.
Trader Pawan Kumar said, “The price of hing has doubled. It was being sold for Rs 1,200 per kg, which is now Rs 2,400.” He said, so far, the supply in the market was normal, but it will be strained after a while. The black market has also become more active due to a rise in the prices of dry fruits. A class of traders is buying dry fruits from the black market, to stock up.
Mukesh Bagaria, a dry fruit trader on Cotton Street, said, “Dry fruit comes to Delhi from Afghanistan. From there, it is supplied to the Calcutta market. No one knows when things will be normal. So, traders are buying and storing dried fruits.”
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