Ironic: Poppy processing in Afghanistan

Lately I have been working on a USAID concept paper for the enhancement of sugar beet processing facilities in the Afghan province of Baghlam and in the process I have learned how little value added processing (VAP) takes place in Afghanistan. Like in many places in Africa, the agricultural economies are focused on providing raw materials that are then exported and processed in other more developed countries. The idea of cultivating a country’s capacity to process agricultural goods is no trivial task, setting up the facilities is only half of it, export is the most difficult (i.e. Quality assurance, maintaining regular schedules, enforcing contract agreements, tariffs, etc).

The irony in Afghanistan is that the poppy industry has some of the most developed (not necessarily advanced, but certainly stable) processing facilities in Afghanistan. Even with the pressure of air strikes (rare), herbicides, burning, etc Afghanistan still produces over 90% of the world’s opium products, amazing.