JALALABAD (SW) – Officials at the Nangarhar Canal Directorate estimate that the olive oil factory will produce 189,000 liters of oil this year alone.
Sayed Hamayoon Gharibmal, the spokesperson for the Directorate, stated that the Nangarhar olive oil factory has a production capacity of 8,000 tons of olive oil and olive pickles, and its production capacity is expected to increase in the near future. “There are 41 workers in this factory, and we plan to pay serious attention to all sections of this factory,” he added.
Gharibmal further said up to 600 hectares of land is earmarked for olive trees and this year 180,000 liters of olive oil and 30 tons of pickles are likely to be procured in comparison to only 41,000 tons if oil and 12 tons of pickles last year.
The olive oil production factory is stretched on a 27.5 jeribs of land in the Hadda farm area and it operates in two sections of olive oil production and pickles production.
Gharibmal also mentioned: “Out of 41 workers here, three are in the administrative section, and the rest are in the technical section.”
Economic experts say that by establishing production factories and investing in them, the government can provide employment opportunities to citizens and increase domestic production.
Asadullah Ahmadzai, an economic expert, says, “This is really a good move. On the one hand, it prevents foreign products from entering the market, and on the other hand, it provides job opportunities for people.”
This comes as, according to statistics from the Nangarhar Canal Directorate, six decades ago, simultaneously with the start of the “Nangarhar Valley” project, 3,100 hectares of land in this province were allocated to olive orchards across four farms, but during the civil wars, some 1,380 hectares of olive orchards were destroyed.
