Afghanistan: Cotton Instead Of Poppy?

Natural Fibers

Afghanistan: Cotton Instead Of Poppy?

Locals say that reviving a once-flourishing processing plant could provide a much-needed alternative.

Activists in Helmand are calling for Kabul to push through a promised financial rescue package to enable a major state-run cotton factory to reopen in the southern province.

The plant, known as Bost Enterprise, was shuttered three years ago, resulting in significant job losses in a province already suffering from high unemployment. Since its closure, activists have repeatedly pressed central government for funding in the hope of bringing the factory back online. Last year Afghanistan's High Economic Council - set up to spearhead the country's economic development - approved a US$ 4.2 million grant to the factory, but so far the money has failed to materialise.

Bost Enterprise was first established more than 50 years ago during the reign of Mohammad Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan. At its peak it employed some 3,000 workers on-site as well as providing employment to thousands of cotton-producing farmers across the region.

Between the mid 1960s to the late 1980s, the plant processed around 32,000 tonnes of cotton a year as well as producing close to 11 tonnes of cooking oil and thousands of bars of laundry soap.

But during the civil war of the 1990s it fell into a state of disrepair and was eventually shut down altogether in 2015. Umar Zwak, a spokesman for Helmand's governor, agreed that restarting the factory would prove a huge boost for employment in the region.

Attaullah Afghan, head of Helmand's provincial council, agreed that reopening the factory could play a pivotal role in reducing poppy cultivation in the province. He pointed to the billions of dollars Afghanistan had spent in attempting to eradicate opium production, and claimed the money would have been far better spent on building factories equipped to process cotton or other crops.

Izmarai, a shopkeeper who still works in the cotton industry in Lashkar Gah, added that the Helmand cotton was of exceptionally high quality and would be in high demand if produced and processed correctly. “Pakistani and Iranian cotton can be found in Afghanistan but ours is always more expensive,” he said. “It’s double the price here as Helmand’s cotton is of such good quality. People will always want to buy it.”