Pomegreat signs £3m a year deal to buy pomegranate juice from Afghanistan

By Ben Farmer in Kabul Published: 9:46PM GMT twenty-eight February 2010

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Adam Pritchard, Pomegreat arch executive, pronounced he has been watchful for a bureau in Afghanistan to turn accessible for 4 or five years Photo: Justin Thomas

Pomegreat has sealed a subject to agreement to buy 500 tonnes of combine each year from the country"s initial ripened offspring extract factory, formed on the hinterland of Kabul. It will additionally buy a serve 500 tonnes of uninformed pomegranates, creation the understanding value �3m a year.

Afghanistan considers itself the home of pomegranates and the ripened offspring is one of the couple of crops to opposition the income from drug poppies.

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Demand in the UK has soared on their repute as a medicinal super fruit, but until right away the pomegranates deliberate the majority appropriate in the universe have been unavailable.

Under the conditions of the deal, Pomegreat will buy around four-fifths of the pomegranate extract combine from the factory. The initial conveyance will arrive inside of 6 weeks.

Adam Pritchard, arch executive, said: "I have been watchful for a bureau in Afghanistan to turn accessible for 4 or five years. The product is fantastic."

America is injecting hundreds of millions of pounds in to Afghan cultivation in the goal it can cut the farming stagnation indicted of fostering the Taliban-led rebellion and branch the poppy prolongation that accounts for some-more than 90pc of the world"s heroin.

Afghanistan"s majority distinguished pomegranates come from the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, that have seen the majority fighting and are additionally poppy-growing strongholds.

Afghanistan has some-more than 40 varieties of the fruit. Kandahar pomegranates can grow to 2lbs in weight.

However, orchards and irrigation streams have been cracked by decades of fighting and assault has done it formidable for farmers to move ripened offspring to market.

The UK pomegranate extract marketplace has grown to an estimated �21m a year. Pomegreat has 60pc marketplace share and sells about 8m litre cartons a year.