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Afghans work on exports

In a dim, dusty factory thick with the peaty aroma of overripe fruit, 16 women dip their hands in vats of paraffin oil and toil for their paychecks and for the new Afghanistan.

The Majidi Raisin Co, a low-slung building east of Kabul, packages and ships oil-coated raisins from the once-fertile Shomali Plain. Like 90 percent of Afghanistan's raisins, most that leave the premises these days will be consumed by Afghans. But it wasn't always that way.

"We would send raisins to London, China, Russia, all over," says the factory's shipping chief, Afizullah Habibi. "And we will again. We have to get our export market going again if we're going to get our country going again.''

Sweet, shriveled and sticky, the Shomali raisin is a cornerstone of Afghanistan's economic future. Also on the menu are almonds and pistachios, while other Afghan products include raw marble, leather goods, textiles and carpets -- intricately woven carpets with a worldwide reputation.

These are the components of what Afghanistan hopes will be the resurgence of an export market all but dormant for a decade -- and a way to return economic prosperity to a country all but cut off from the world for nearly a generation.

Since the Taliban fell in November, much has come into Afghanistan -- foreigners, money, aid -- but little has gone out. Afghan officials believe a robust export sector can stimulate development, which in turn encourages stability. But daunting obstacles block the way.

"We need time. We need capital. We need factories," says Sayed Ahmadullah Majeed, head of export promotions at the Afghan Ministry of Commerce. And, he says, "We need know-how -- expertise on packaging and supply."

That's no easy task in a nation whose entire industrial infrastructure lies in ruins -- along with the pivotal relationships and connections that help keep an economy chugging along.

As industry in the capital takes baby steps toward normalcy, confidence is fashionable. And a growing chorus is bubbling up to get the country's export markets running again.

Ashraf Ghani, development adviser to interim government chief Hamid Karzai, sees an entire campaign -- complete with "Made in Afghanistan" to create a buzz.

Asked about exports, he grows enthusiastic as he rattles off the possibilities -- cumin, saffron, textiles, organically grown vegetables. Dried foods?

"An enormous asset."

Marble?

"Some of the best in the world."

Chris Patten, the EU's commissioner for external affairs, is optimistic, too -- and ready to help.

During his visit to Kabul last month, he said he envisions Afghanistan exporting "everything from cut flowers to food products to manufactured goods."

But, he says, "You have to help poorer countries achieve those standards that consumers in richer countries understandably insist on."

Afghanistan once exported to the US and many European countries. But after communist rule crumbled in 1989, the factional warfare of the 1990s and the rule of the Taliban militia kept the flow of goods erratic and foreign buyers skittish.
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