The agricultural and horticultural sectors in Afghanistan have traditionally been one of the potential economic indicators and one of the most important and influential factors in economic growth.
According to the official figures, more than 60 % of the work force in Afghanistan is encompassed with the agricultural activities and people acquire their subsistence from the agronomic harvests – while agriculture constitutes 27 % of the country’s GDP.
40 % of Afghanistan out of 652,000 square kilometers area is formed of mountains and highlands which are not suitable for cultivation, 46 % includes permanent pastures and only 12 % of the entire terrene is arable with a 3 % jungle covered.
Cold  storage  is  the  one  widely  practiced  method  for  bulk  handling  of  the perishables between  production  and marketing processing. It is one of the methods of reserving perishable commodities in fresh and whole some state for a longer period by controlling temperature and humidity within the storage system.
Afghanistan with major agronomical stir is direly in need of cold storages for its green and fresh yields. Taking the importance of the storages in mind, establishment of such facilities overtly rebuffs from rotting green groceries and fruits. Yearly, a quantity of agricultural harvests is spoiled or losing quality due to the lack of storages and it affects the national economy.
Cold storage not only prevents the harvests from rotting, but also contributes in maintaining consistency of the market. The stored vegetables and fruits while off season thriving the market place and maintaining availability of the products in the market. While export is a major factor in developing national economy, establishment of the cold storages boosts the export volume and strengthens the proliferation of export capacity and will fulfil the export target of reaching to $1 billion export value in 2019 aimed by Afghan Minister of Industries and Commerce (MoIC) Mr. Ajmal Ahmady.
Current Situation
The country with nearly 5 million MTs of grain harvests, 1.5 million MTs of fruits and 2.5 million MTs of groceries  estimated yearly is equipped with 3,164 cold storages and a total capacity of 94K MTs– not sufficient enough, according to the Afghan farmers and orchardists.
The toll by the Ministry of Industries and Commerce suggests that 147 out of 3,164 cold storages are inactive in Afghanistan due to: (1) electricity shortage, (2) non-standardized cold stores, and (3) security issues.
In addition, there are three types of cold stores: (1) Farm, (2) Cooperative, and (3) commercial cold storages. Farm cold stores have the highest number that is 3,063. Farm cold storages are used only for potatoes and onions.
Bamyan and central Afghan province has the largest number of cold storages which is 2,000 in numbers, followed by Parwan with 300 storages and other provinces have a smaller number. Meanwhile, there are 140 inactive farm storages, 40 in Badakhshan and 67 in Maidan Wardak province. Wardak Province has the highest number of inactive cold storages in Afghanistan.
There are total of 74 cooperative cold storages and each costs $69K. These storages store variant kinds of vegetables and fruits and have comparatively less capacity, the facilities are owned by Cooperative Union. There are total of 5 inactive cooperative storages of which, Laghman has the largest number of inactive cooperative storage i.e. 3. In addition, there are 27 commercial cold storages, out of which 25 are inactive. It has a total capacity of 21.6K MTs and average capacity per store is 292 MTs.
These types of storages are the most expansive ones which cost an average of $345K per store. Herat province has the largest number of commercial storages (10), however, still does not meet the demand, as other nearby provinces store their goods in Herat cold storages.

As the favorable season of vegetables and fruits arrive, the prices of vegetables and fruits dwindle. Similarly, the volume of trade escalates. However, in off-season opposite is the situation, the reason of which is the shortage in cold storage facilities, especially in Sar-e-pol, Herat, Kundoz, Kandahar, Ghazni, and Kabul provinces.
Challenges
A steady decline in rainfall, ruinous droughts, widespread agricultural pests, lack of skilled agricultural manpower, insecurity, shortage of mechanized equipment and particularly lack of cold storages are highlighted as challenges that Afghanistan’s agricultural and horticultural sectors are grappling with.
Lack of commercial and cooperative cold storages is another challenge. There is need for 444K MTs of storage space and therefore there is a high demand for the cold storage in Sar-e-Pul, Herat, Kunduz, Kabul and Ghazni provinces to protect the perishable fruits and vegetables.
Currently there are 3,164 cold storages across the provinces highlighted as blue in the map below. However, the currant supply of the storages does not meet the demand; on the other hand, there is lack of refrigerated trucks and over all, due to the inefficient cold chain, on average, there is a waste of 20-40% during each year.
Based on an assessment by the
Six of the main producing provinces were assessed, as a result, there is huge gap between the demand and supply of cold storages across the six places. Sar-e-pol had the largest production in fruits and vegetables (3.5M MTs)*, and it has the largest shortage of cold stores by 126k MTs, along with that is Herat. Its horticulture production was 230K MTs, therefore, a Shortage of 44 MTs cold stores are needed. Similarly, all provinces are shorted with cold stores for as detailed below. It is believed that the horticulture production has increased in 2018-19 all over Afghanistan, but the figures are not known
Government’s Assistance for Establishment of Cold Storages
Provision of facilities for the agricultural sector by the government –a demand by the farmers- thoroughly leads to obviation of fluctuation in demand and supply chain, helps in constancy of the prices and prevents waste of the perishable products.
Afghanistan’s economy heavily relies on agricultural sector and it forms maximum production of the country too. Therefore, government supports in strengthening the agricultural sector is vital. The Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock has planned to establish 45 zero-energy cold storages for agricultural harvests in Farah province and having few more on the plan to establish.
Cold storages help prolong the life span of fresh products and reduce the amount of waste and lengthen the time frame for marketing of the green products. However, based on the regulations, the government is responsible for supporting the private sector and the private sector has to make cold storages for maintaining the market. 
Afghanistan in spite of the lack of cold storages and challenges on the trade path could relentlessly put efforts to boost the export of fresh fruits and vegetables during 2019. The initiative of Air Corridors by Ministry of Industries and Commerce added further in finding pivotal markets for the green harvests of Afghanistan. As the result, MoIC exported 15,811,975 KGs of fresh fruits and 38,081,833 KGs of vegetables with a total value of about $16 million during the first 6 months of the current year while the export toll for fresh fruits was 10,352,900 KGs and 13,866,087 KGs of vegetables with a total value of $14 million at the same period last year.