Green Raisins

 Written by: Naqib Ahmad Azizi

According to the information provided by the ministry of agriculture of Afghanistan, there are more than 100 types of grapes grown in this country and grapes are a good source of income for gardeners.

Some gardeners make raisins. Those raisins, which are dried inside the rooms are called green raisins but sometimes these raisins go bad.

AEPO’ writer/producer has talked to some gardeners and an agricultural expert about this issue.

A gardener, Jahanzeb says: “my raisins spoiled two times. Last year, my raisins spoiled due to heavy rain and I suffer 250 thousand Afghanis loss.”

Another gardener, Lawang, a resident of Maidan-Wardak province says: “Two years before our raisins became black and some of them spoiled and had no market and I face about 700 Afghanis loss in each seven kilograms raisins.”

How to take care of raisins?

Abdul Azem, a resident of Ghazni province says: “we have 150 grapevines and we make raisins but as we do not have a proper place for drying grapes, sometimes our raisins go bad and change their color.

Lawang says:” At the beginning, we were spreading the raisins in the way that they were touching each other and most of the raisins were getting black but now, we spread the grapes in the way that they are not touching each other and we get a good result."

An agricultural expert, Abdul Samad Kamawi says: “at the beginning, the grapes should be cut from the grapevines before sunshine. The room for making green raisins should have a ventilator. Some gardeners wash grapes with chemicals before making raisins but the customers do not like this kind of raisins and say that the chemicals change the taste of the raisins. The gardeners should separate the spoiled grapes before making raisins and then they should hang them on ropes in the way that they should not touch each other. These kinds of raisins would dry bright green and would have a good market.”