Report on a Development program in Afghanistan to develop Cold Chain and cold storage

1628775-38100000
Report on a Cold Chain and Cold Storage Development Program: A Trial on Extended Preservation of Fresh Grapes in Storage

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
TOC o “1-3” h z u HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168507” 1.Purpose PAGEREF _Toc510168507 h 34
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168508” 2.Background PAGEREF _Toc510168508 h 34
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168509” 3.2016 RADP-N – MGCSSC Project PAGEREF _Toc510168509 h 56
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168510” 4.Methodology PAGEREF _Toc510168510 h 6
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168511” 4.1 Upgrades to the facility PAGEREF _Toc510168511 h 67
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168512” 4.2 Product Selection PAGEREF _Toc510168512 h 67
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168513” 4.3 Harvesting Techniques PAGEREF _Toc510168513 h 67
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168514” 4.4 Transportation PAGEREF _Toc510168514 h 7
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168515” 4.5 Grading and Packaging: PAGEREF _Toc510168515 h 78
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168516” 4.6 Monitoring of stored product: PAGEREF _Toc510168516 h 78
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168517” 5.Project implementation PAGEREF _Toc510168517 h 8
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168518” 6.Evaluation of Critical Factors PAGEREF _Toc510168518 h 13
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168519” 6.1 Control of temperature and humidity – Upgrading the cold storage facility in preparation for long-term storage of fresh grapes PAGEREF _Toc510168519 h 13
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168520” 6.2 Selection of vineyards for harvest – Product selection in the field PAGEREF _Toc510168520 h 14
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168521” 6.

3 Adoption of good harvesting techniques and good on-farm practices – Harvesting and post-harvest handling practices PAGEREF _Toc510168521 h 1615
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168522” 6.4 Use of refrigerated transportation – Transportation to the facility PAGEREF _Toc510168522 h 1716
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168523” 6.5 Use of purpose made packaging area and storage crates – Grading and packaging PAGEREF _Toc510168523 h 1716
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168524” 6.6 Adoption of good cold store management practices – Including monitoring during cold storage PAGEREF _Toc510168524 h 1817
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168525” 7.Cost-Benefit Analysis PAGEREF _Toc510168525 h 2018
HYPERLINK l “_Toc510168526” 8.Summary PAGEREF _Toc510168526 h 2624

Acknowledgements
This report was written by Steven Atkinson, Team Leader, High Value Crops, Regional Agricultural Development Program – North (RADP-N), Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.
The field work was managed by Sayeed Abdul Satar Moosavi, Senior Business Development Specialist, RADP-N. Field Operations and data collection was carried out by Mohammad Belal Asefi, Business Development Specialist, RADP-N.
RADP-N is a US$78 million USAID funded project to advance food and economic security for rural Afghans in six Northern provinces of Afghanistan. To achieve this, the program strengthens the capacity of farmers in improved production in the wheat, high value crop, and livestock value chains. Its activities enable farmers to increase their commercial viability and competitiveness in response to market demand, thereby generating greater income opportunities and empowering families to better meet their household needs. RADP-N uses a value chain facilitation approach to address numerous bottlenecks and identify lead firms within the area capable of leveraging positive change. The final piece of RADP-N’s holistic framework is supporting a policy environment through advocacy and dialogue that strengthens the private sector.
PurposeThe purpose of this project is to determine the efficacy of using cold storages to preserve fresh produce in northern parts of Afghanistan. 70 metric tons (MTs) of high-quality Taifi grapes that are harvested from Firoz Nakhchivan district of Samangan province will be stored in Meeran Guzargah Cold Storage Services Company (MGCSSC) for a period which exceeds the trial duration conducted by the company in 2016. RADP-N planned to improve the storage time by more than 30% while retaining product quality.
The activity aims to show grape producers that it is possible to harvest grapes when the market price was low and hold them until the off-season when prices peak. This will be done by applying critical cold chain interventions at key parts of the post-harvest and storage for fresh grapes so that Afghans can understand the requisites for fresh grapes preservation. It is expected that the preserved grapes will show marked improvement in the quality retention. This will convince both the producers and the cold store owner of the possibility to reach the off-season markets and realize sustainable profits.
BackgroundIn Northern Afghanistan, USAID’s RADP-N program is tasked with the development of effective value chain for the dry and fresh fruit sector in the local economy. The High-Value Crops (HVC) component of RADP-N is working to improve the quality and quantity of fresh grapes, stone fruits, melons, dried fruits and nuts produced in the North. Over the past decade, there has been numerous internationally and locally supported programs aimed at improving the quality and quantity of HVC yields.

Increased farm production has resulted in higher yields which reduce demand and therefore cause lower local market prices. This causes high postharvest losses for the farmers. A major shortcoming amongst farmers is inadequate access to ready markets. There is lack of knowledge and skills that are pertinent to the application of cold chain needs that need be addressed in conjunction with other activities that support the production, harvest, preparation, storage, and distribution of fresh produce. USAID has increased its’ focus on Afghan exports which requires a high level of cold chain knowledge, and competency, particularly in the case of the high-value crops.
The shortage of cold chain knowledge and experienced professionals in Afghanistan is exaggerated in the Northern Provinces. This is evidenced by markets that are flooded with reduced value products shortly after harvesting. The farmers are often unable to adopt the expensive improved technologies because the low market prices do not provide enough resources for the venture. Producers are usually at the mercy of traders who purchase their crops by the jerib rather than the kilogram or pallet load. Without cold stores, grape farmers cannot sell their products in the fresh or dried markets. Instead, they depend on the exploitative local and foreign middlemen who can afford the cold stores out of the country. Local cold chain practitioners have a business opportunity in which they can eliminate the middleman and help the farmers.
Cold storage technology is not new to Afghanistan but has previously been neglected in terms of the level of training provided to cold store owners. There is the need to reimagine it as a fledgling industry which will allow high-quality fresh produce to access out-of-season local markets. It will also open various windows of opportunity for regional supply. A cold chain is, therefore, a vital link to the export market whose lucrativeness has been recognized by USAID and other international donors. However, the highly technical nature of the cold supply chain and the knowledge vacuum in the industry causes reluctance amongst producers towards storing their produce in the cold storage facilities in centers such as MGCSSC in the Mazar area.
Local producers and traders realize the need to improve the quality of the products they sell to achieve higher prices. In an attempt to achieve this, there is an adoption of improved production techniques, and cold storage facilities are being built in the Mazar area by the private sector. However, there is still an enormous gap in understanding the vital links between the farm and the consumer. Poor handling practices and improper transportation and storage still cause considerable losses to farmers. Increased productivity drives the prices down making the producers reduce their rate of harvest and thus leaving the product in the field well past its optimal harvest date. Locally produced fresh produce is only available during the harvest season, after which imported produce from Iran, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan can be found on the shelves in Mazar-e-Sharif.
In 2016, RADP-N evaluated ten cold storage facilities in the Mazar-e-Sharif area. It learned that the biggest problem facing the facility owners was the lack of cold supply chain knowledge. It also identified the lack of confidence in the cold chain industry by producers. RADP-N, therefore, trained more than 100 individuals from the industry and students from the Balkh University’s faculty of Engineering. The training was designed to provide participants with knowledge of the critical factors in effective cold store management while introducing University graduates to the possibility of a career in the cold storage industry. It is standard practice in Western countries for successful cold storage businesses to recruit technical and managerial staff from the engineering faculties of local universities due to the precise nature of the cold storage business.
One of the cold storage facilities evaluated by the RADP-N technical team was Meeran Guzargah Cold Storage Services Company (MGCSSC). MGCSSC partnered with a local trader to aggregate fresh grapes from vineyards in Samangan Province. RADP-N then offered technical assistance to the company did not adhere to the advice in the attempt to store 210MT of fresh Taifi grapes for sale to local markets in the off-season in 2016. The company managed to hold the product for three weeks only before deterioration forced them to dump the entire consignment on the Pakistan market during the 2016 grape season.
2016 RADP-N – MGCSSC ProjectIn February 2017, RADP-N facilitated the owner of MGCSSC, Mr. Ghulam Hazrat, attendance to the GulFood 2017 Expo to learn more about grape market trends. During the visit, RADP-N technical team arranged a tour to three cold storage facilities to expose the owner and other food processing companies from Mazar, to efficient Dubai systems and provide them with the opportunity to talk to the facilities’ management and technical teams. Realizing errors made during his attempt to store fresh grapes in 2016, Mr. Hazrat requested RADP-N’s assistance to store grapes from the 2017 season.
MGCSSC still has a lot to learn to achieve international standards of cold store management and would need to make significant infrastructure investments. RADP-N realized that by addressing critical areas of the cold chain process, Mr. Hazrat would achieve a considerable improvement in his ability to preserve fresh grapes in his facility. RADP-N coined the term “Afghanized Cold Storage” to refer to a staged approach to improving cold supply chain in Afghanistan which would yield the best short and long-term results. RADP-N believes that although Afghanized Cold Storage would not be acceptable in developed countries, addressing critical factors in smaller achievable increments would be more likely to get traction from stakeholders. This is because it allows them to witness continued improvement in the quality of the product being stored over an extended period.
Consequently, RADP-N designed a program to provide support to MGCSSC and Mr. Molodin, representing growers from Firoz Nakhchir district of Samangan Province, to harvest and store 70MT of fresh grapes at the MGCSSC facility. RADP-N technical team highlighted several critical factors to be addressed by the company. It then set the target to improve the storage time by a minimum of 30% above the previous year. RADP-N considered the following critical factors to be addressed in order to achieve the improvement targeted:
Control of Temperature and Humidity
Selection of appropriate vineyards for harvest
Harvesting and Post-harvest handling practices
Use of refrigerated transport
Use of purpose made packing area and storage crates
Adoption of good cold store management practices
MethodologyRADP-N collaborated Mr. Hazrat and Mr. Molodin who were the owners of MGCSSC and set about managing the listed critical factors. They focused especially the areas which could be taken care off at a minimal cost and have the greatest impact on preservation time. The areas would be accomplished following an agreement between these two parties:
Control of temperature and humidity – Upgrade the cold storage facility in preparation for long-term storage of fresh grapes
Selection of vineyards for harvest – Select the product in the field based on quality
Harvesting and post-harvest handling practices – Adopt good harvesting techniques and good on-farm practices
Use of refrigerated transportation – Manage transportation to the facility in refrigerated truck
Use of purpose made packaging area and storage crates – Cooled grading room and stackable storage crates
Adoption of good cold store management practices – Including monitoring during cold storage
4.1 Upgrades to the facilityWhen RADP-N inspected the storage coolers as they were for the 2016 season, they reported the absence of humidifiers in the cold room chambers. This affected the efficacy of the process significantly. To increase the project’s success, Mr. Hazrat will provide humidifiers suitable for the capacity of the cold room ahead of the harvesting. He will also purchase additional sorting tables, scales, sulfur pads, and the required labor for the harvesting and grading processes.
4.2 Product SelectionThe product selection will take place in the field and will be considered an important part of the storage process. At the optimal harvest point, the produce is usually healthier and therefore it is less susceptible to fungal infection. At this point, the Brix levels of the product are between 18 and 20. This is the correct level for western markets. However, the local markets prefer a product with a Brix level of between 22 and 26. These are grapes that are ripened for longer and the fruit is already starting to lose its crispness on the vine.
Since the traditional practice involves the harvesting of grapes for the market local market conditions which is done by the jerib, the harvested product is seldom at its overall optimal quality. Most of the Afghani product is a mix of A, B and C grade grapes. This is generally not a problem because the aim of the project was to supply the local markets only. These mixed grades sold internationally (even in Pakistan), will fetch low market prices.
4.3 Harvesting TechniquesThe RADP-N project has carried out an extensive farmers and farmer groups training program on good harvesting techniques for the last three years. The aim of the training was to reduce the deterioration of the product post-harvest. RADP-N trained 30 laborers in Post-Harvest Handling (PHH) techniques through this program. It then issued them with harvesting shears, harvest crates, and instructed them on how to pre-grade the product in the field. For example, the laborers were educated on the fact that touching the berries by hand removes the protective plume which in turn makes them vulnerable to infection. The grapes should be placed carefully in the harvesting crates to avoid bruising or breaking the berry skin.
4.4 TransportationThere is a rapid deterioration of the grapes immediately after harvesting. By reducing the temperature of the produce as quickly as possible after harvest, deterioration is considerably minimized. Two Tuk-Tuks would be used by RADP-N transporters to move the crates from the vineyard to a 20MT refrigerated truck (Reefer). Here, the harvest crates would be loaded immediately for the cooling process to start. The rate of harvest and the rate of loading the reefer should be controlled at the same rate. This will prevent the excessiveprolonged storage of grapes in unfrozen conditions. The efficacy of the process will also be increased by packing the crates in a layout which allows for the free circulation of cool air within the reefer. These reefers will transport full loads of grapes to Mazar where the storage processing takes place.

Fig 1: Shipping grapes from the vineyards to the refrigerated truck by Tuk-Tuk
4.5 Grading and Packaging:At the Mazar MGCSSC premises, the crates are offloaded as quickly as possible and placed into the grading and packaging area which is already pre-cooled. During the grading process, there is extra sorting, and the damaged or rotting berries are removed by ten individuals that are pre-trained by RADP-N for the procedure.
4.6 Monitoring of stored product:Throughout the storage period, the facility manager will monitor the humidity and temperature inside the cold room on an hourly basis. A generator has been placed on standby as a contingency in case the city power fails. The manager will switch over to generator power immediately in the event of power failure. The manager will open pre-selected crates 2-3 times every week. He will inspect and report findings on the condition of the grapes. To support and make the monitoring process easier, RADP-N will place two electronic data loggers in the cold room. These are data loggers for temperature and humidity for a 30-day period and a 90-day period respectively.
Project ImplementationTogether with the technical advice, RADP-N provided 10,000 grape storage crates. It also hired a 20MT refrigerated truck, hired two Tuk-Tuks, trained 30 labors on PHH techniques, and 10 laborers on grading and packing of grapes for cold storage. The company also provided harvesting sheers, trimming scissors, and perforated plastic bags (storage crate liners) to ensure the best result.
There were multiple challenges that RADP-N had not been anticipated and threatened the success of the program. The primary problem was the difficulty that the owners of the cold stores encountered when trying to convince the farmers to hold product for harvest by the MGCSSC harvest team.. The farmers already have a familiar method of distributing their products and therefore did not want to cooperate with Mr. Hazrat.
While RADP-N addressed logistical concerns like the transportation of labor, paying Tuk-Tuks and the provision of a refrigerated truck to the vineyards,. Mr. Hazrat and Mr. Molodin tried to secure the product to harvest from local farmers. According to RADP-N, the purchasing of the product was a critical process and was started too later thus the evident challenges between sellers and buyers. The farmers sell their produce to local and foreign traders who come to the farm and fix a price for the entire vineyard and the harvesting commences immediately.
The different varieties and grades of the crop are harvested and mixed in the crates or plastic bag provided by the trader. After harvesting, the trader leaves the vineyard and whatever has not been harvested becomes the farmers’ property once again. The reason why the trader must harvest immediately after the agreement with the farmer is to avoid another trader from bettering his price and stealing the deal from him.
Mr. Hazrat and Mr. Molodin managed to get produce to purchase in a few days from four vineyards and paid for the product. There was a long discussion by the MGCSSC owners and the individual farmers to create an agreement that the farmers shall not sell their crop to another trader within two days so that logistics for harvesting and transportation could be arranged. It is a common practice for a farmer to take a payment and he sells the grapes again if he gets a better offer before the harvesting begins. It is better if farmers can secure their markets early in the season and commit to these markets. Traders and processors create certainty and seek more lucrative markets if they can count on their suppliers to provide an agreed quality product, at the agreed price, and at the agreed time.

On the 7th September 2017, Mr. Hazrat placed an order to the Sheen Zar Trading Company in Kabul for the supply of sulfur pads. According to the company, the pads were confirmed for delivery to Mazar on or before 16th September.
Mr. Hazrat continueds with the attempts to tie up contracts with the farmers. The farmers completely refused to let Mr. Hazrat “cherry pick” Grade A product only. This was the required product since it was the only product whose storage could be extended optimally. Mr. Hazrat was forced to pick the lower grades too, and this slowed the harvest rate and grading and sorting process at the facility. The mixed grade consignment also took up valuable transportation space in the refrigerated truck adding to the shipment costs. He purchased the grapes in the vineyard at AFN20/Kg which was the same price the farmer would get when selling to the 100km away to Mazar city market.
On 13 September RADP-N trained 30 laborers from the Firoz Nakhchir Gardeners Association on good grape harvest techniques and post-harvest handling. RADP-N also carried out training for 10 laborers on grading and packaging of the grapes at the MGCSSC facility on 14th September. On the same day, Mr. Hazrat reported that the sulfur pads supplier was not going to be able to deliver them. He was advised to get the pads from other suppliers, but he refused. He had already paid for the entire consignment and therefore did not want to commit more money to the process. The slow harvesting caused delays of the refrigerated truck to the city entry limit. The grading process which was very slow and the lack of sufficient sulfur pads led to a reduction in the volume of grapes intended for storage to 50MT.
On 25 September 2017, the harvesting started at 0600hrs with 30 trained labors in four vineyards in close proximity to each other in Firoz Nakhchir district. The vigilant RADP-N staff noticed that the harvesting team loaded too much product in the crates. This caused damage to the grapes in the baskets when the baskets were stacked on top of each other, and, therefore, the baskets were repacked before being loaded into the reefer. Harvesters were instructed to place only one row of grapes per harvest basket, and this prevented damage and made it easier to stack the crates and carry them out of the field.

Fig 2a: Grape Harvesting in Firoz Nakhchir district of Samangan province

Fig 2b: Method of cutting grape from the bunch in the vineyard by trained farmers
The harvest team worked in three groups, for harvesting, loading the Tuk-Tuks and unloading the Tuk-Tuks and loading the refrigerated truck. When loading the Tuk-Tuks, the drivers were waited for many baskets and overloaded the Tuk-Tuks. This delayed the delivery of the reefer. The offloading of a large number of baskets at the Reefer was causing a bottleneck. By reducing the number of baskets per load on the Tuk-Tuks, it was possible to run quicker between the field and the reefer and reduced the congestion at the reefer.
RADP-N believed that the farmers had agreed to be paid by the kilogram at the MGCSSC facility, but instead the farmers refused to allow the reefer to be loaded until they had weighed each crate. As a result, at least 8MT of grapes were left on the side of the road for several hours after the completion of harvesting for that day while the farmers recorded the weights of each crate. Harvesting ended daily at 10:45and thus these grapes were in the sun during the hottest part of the day. Although the RADP-N technical staff had told the reefer driver to ensure the refrigeration unit was running continuously, the driver turned the reefer off to save fuel during the packaging delays. By the time the product was loaded, the temperature inside the reefer was approximately 25°C.
The slow harvesting caused delays of the refrigerated truck to the city entry limit. The reefer left the field at 13:00 but was stopped by the police and forbidden from entering the city. There is a policy to prevent heavy vehicles from entering the city between 06:00 am and 06:00 pm as a security measure taken by the Afghan National Police (ANP) to secure Mazar from terrorist attacks.
On arrival at the facility, the product was offloaded and placed in the pre-cooled grading area (approximately 10°C) until the following day when the grading commenced.

Fig 3: Grape sorting in MGCSSC’s precooling store
Harvesting was planned to happen on a daily basis, but it was not possible because of delays sorting and packing each consignment in the precooling/grading store before moving it into the cold store. Although grading and packaging were expected to take the ten staff no longer than 8 hours per reefer load, this turned out to be insufficient time due to their inexperience, and the amount of mixed grade increased this time substantially. The schedules were also readdressed to allow for the closure of the city roads to large trucks during the day and the rate at which the processing could be carried out properly. The slow harvesting caused delays of the refrigerated truck to the city entry limit. The grading process which was very slow and the lack of sufficient sulfur pads led to a reduction in the volume of grapes intended for storage to 50MTDuring the grading of the first load of grapes, RADP-N staff noticed that in order to pack 7Kgs in the 7Kg storage crates, they would have to overfill them and run the risk of damaging the grapes when the crate lid was affixed. The RADP-N technical team instructed the grading and sorting team to pack only 5Kgs per storage crate. This worked well and allowed the gaps between the berries for air movement.

Fig 4: 5Kg grape crates stored in the long-term Cold Storage Chamber, December 3, 2017
Harvesting, transporting, and grading continued on the revised schedule over the next 18 days and was stopped on 13th October due to the non-arrival of the remaining sulfur pads and the quality of the grapes in the vineyards. RADP-N felt that without the sulfur pads the targeted results would not be realized. 37.4MT were harvested, graded and stored but only 20MT included the sulfur pads.
Regular monitoring of the product over the next 5 weeks showed the product stored with the sulfur pads retained its quality while those stored without the pads were starting to show signs of deterioration. Two weeks later (13th November), on the advice of RADP-N’s technical team, Mr. Hazrat began selling the product which was losing quality. All the 17.4MT was sold by 5th December. By then, the market price had already risen from AFN20 to AFN40/kg as the supply direct from the field had come to an end. The average quality of the stored grapes without sulfur pads was still better than those coming from the field. RADP-N Business Development team reported that the last of these direct shipments was on 5th December.
On 6th December and after a good response from the wholesale market, Mr. Hazrat and the RADP-N team decided it was a good time to start selling the remaining 20MT of product which up to this time had been held for 10 weeks far surpassing the 3 weeks achieved by the Company in 2016. Over the next two and a half weeks Mr. Hazrat sold consignments of 1,200Kg per day to two wholesale markets in the Mazar area at prices between AFN58 and AFN68/Kg, (average AFN63.5/Kg over 20MT). The last of the grapes sold were considered by the buyers to be of a quality equal to or better than those they received from the field at the end of October.

Fig 5: Grape condition in the cold store with the sulfur pad after 62 days in storage, 26 November 2017
Evaluation of Critical FactorsIn the attempt to Afghanize the cold storage process as a stepped approach to the development of cold storage of fresh produce, RADP-N considered six key factors:
Temperature and humidity control
Selection of optimal quality grapes in the field
Good PHH techniques to be adopted
Cooling as soon as possible after harvest
Effective grading and packaging
Good cold store management practices during storage
6.1 Control of temperature and humidity – Upgrading the cold storage facility in preparation for long-term storage of fresh grapesPreparation of the cold storage facility to provide optimal humidity and temperature for the duration of the trial period was addressed by the owner who installed a humidifier in the storage chamber and set it to 97%. The refrigeration units were serviced and made ready for the project start. Mr. Hazrat partitioned one of the 2,000m³ cold store chambers making two equal sized rooms. Each room was controlled by its own refrigeration system allowing Mr. Hazrat to create a chilled sorting and grading room and a long-term storage room with an inter-leading doorway.
Although the thermal sandwich board used for the partition was only 50mm and not ideal for the purpose, Mr. Hazrat said that he had sought advice from an Iranian company who told him that he did not need to use 110mm sandwich board. In the grading room, Mr. Hazrat placed metal tables which have a stainless-steel work surface, installed additional lighting, placed a digital scale on each sorting table, and constructed a rudimentary tunnel at the entrance to the sorting room to reduce heat flow into the grading room.
Once the humidifier and refrigeration systems were started, RADP-N staff noted that the temperature in the storage room did not drop below 4.2°C, however, once the grading and sorting were completed and the facilities closed up, the temperature dropped to 2.8°C. This suggests the constant opening and closing of the doors between the sorting and storage rooms during the day made it difficult for the cooling system to reduce the temperature to the desired range of between 0.5°C and 1°C.
Once sorted the grapes should be stored in the cold room until the product temperature is reduced significantly (approximately 5°C) before the sulfur pads are placed in the crates, and the crates are fitted with the crate lids. Due to the lack of space in the facility the sulfur pads were placed on a piece of paper towel in the crates after sorting and weighing. The crates were closed and moved to the storage area. While this is not ideal because of the possibility of the sulfur tainting the grapes if they are still too wet, placing the paper towel seemed to mitigate this issue, and RADP-N did not find any product which had been tainted.
6.2 Selection of vineyards for harvest – Product selection in the fieldSelection of product should be done based on the market demand. While markets in the UAE, Europe, and the West prefer grapes with a Brix reading of approximately 16 to 18, consumers in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India prefer a much sweeter grape with a Brix of 22 to 26. The question of what is the optimal harvest time for Taifi grapes from the Samangan province of Afghanistan is dependent on the intended market. While harvesting late has the advantage of raising the Brix level, it also has an effect of reducing the storage time of the product.
Since the entire crop does not ripen at the same rate, harvesting should take place over a period of time depending on the availability of water and the climatic conditions of the season. It is, therefore, critical that the trader knows who the end customer is and what that market requirement is well before the season commences.
An understanding of the requirements of the intended market includes knowledge of the volumes required for that market because oversupply even in the off-season will have a negative effect on the market price.
Product selection in the field is further complicated by the farmer’s desire to harvest the entire crop at the one time. Traders need toshould consider the immediate selling of product on a daily basis as they harvest for long-term storageselling products intermittently and with regards to the buyer needs. Traders looking to store product for supply in the off-season cannot waste resources (in particular, refrigeration space and grading and sorting time), on a product which will not store well due to being under/over ripe or contaminated.
The table below provides details of the harvest and includes information on the farmers, the location of the vineyards, and the volumes harvested.
No Farmer’s Name Village District Province # of Jeribs Contact Date of Harvest Quantity Harvested in Kg
Day One (September 25)
1 Abdul Haq Joy Shakh Neel Firoz Nakhchir Samangan 4 0776430411 9/25/2017 3649
2 Abdul Ahmad Joy Shakh Neel Firoz Nakhchir Samangan 1 0772443861 9/25/2017 2846
3 Noorullah Joy Shakh Neel Firoz Nakhchir Samangan 1 0774866497 9/25/2017 2008
4 Faizullah Joy Shakh Neel Firoz Nakhchir Samangan 0.5 0776430411 9/25/2017 760
Total Grapes Harvested 9263
Day Two (September 30)
1 Abdul Haq Qandari Firoz Nakhchir Samangan 3 0776430411 9/30/2017 10302
Total Grapes Harvested 10302
Day Three (October 2)
1 Abdul Haq Qandari Firoz Nakhchir Samangan 2 0776430411 10/2/2017 10806
Total Grapes Harvested 10806
Day Four (October 13)
1 Abdul Haq Qandari Firoz Nakhchir Samangan 2 0776430411 10/13/2017 7058
Total Grapes Harvested 7058
Total Grapes Harvested in Four Days 37,429
Table 1: Harvesting details.
6.3 Adoption of good harvesting techniques and good on-farm practices – Harvesting and post-harvest handling practicesTechniques taught to the harvesting team included simple interventions such as how to handle the grape bunch before cutting the stem, how to remove any damaged berries, in-field grading, and laying the bunch in the harvest crates. The ‘A’ Grade grapes should be kept separate from all other grades to minimize cross-contamination in the field.
Once the bunch has been harvested, the clock is ticking on the potential storage time of that product. Every hour after harvest at 30°C reduces the potential storage time of that product by one week. This is a good rule of thumb for all grapes, cherries, and soft skin stone fruit varieties. This considered the grapes need to be placed in a cool environment as quickly as possible after harvesting. RADP-N provided an 18MT reefer for the purpose of storing the product in a cool place during the harvesting and transportation stage.

Farmers should avoid using canal water to wet the product in an attempt to keep them cool. In most cases, the water in the canal is contaminated and will speed up the deterioration of the grapes. Harvesters were trained to avoid touching the berries because this removes the natural plume on the berry which is the plants’ built-in protection against infection.
A critical aspect of the activity was to load the harvested grapes into the reefer as soon as possible after harvest. Preparation of the reefer was planned by reducing the temperature in the reefer well ahead of the harvesting and loading stage. Unfortunately, the farmers wanted each harvest crate weighed before it was loaded into the reefer. This resulted in a bottleneck at the reefer and the doors of the reefer left open during the process which defeated the intended aim of providing a cool environment for the grapes during the harvest and loading process in the field.
The driver switched the refrigeration unit off because it was a waste of fuel since the reefer doors were left open during the lengthy weighing process, hence the temperature in the reefer could not be kept at the desired level. The farmers sold the entire yield to Mr. Hazrat, and therefore the actual weighing of the harvest should not have been important. When it was realized that the farmers wanted to weigh each crate, the weighing should have been done outside the reefer, and the doors of the reefer kept closed. Each Tuk-Tuk load could have been loaded once they were weighed and then the reefer sealed again while the crates of the next Tuk-Tuk was weighed. The result was that the crates were left in the heat of the day for several hours before being loaded into the hot reefer.
6.4 Use of refrigerated transportation – Transportation to the facility
Optimal loading of the reefer should allow passageways inside the load to facilitate the free movement of cold air within the reefer. Once the reefer was loaded (up to 7 hours later), the vehicle traveled to the cold storage facility in Mazar with the refrigeration unit set to 10°C. The product remained in this condition until approximately 2000hrs when it was unloaded into the chilled grading room at MGCSSC.
6.5 Use of purpose made packaging area and storage crates – Grading and packagingFollowing the arrival of a consignment of approximately 7 to 10MT of grapes from the field, the product was held in the chilling room overnight, and packaging commenced the next morning. The trained grading and packaging team transferred grapes from the harvest crates to storage crates. The storage crates purchased for the purpose were sold as 7Kg crates. While it is possible to fit 7Kg of grapes in each crate, it is not the correct packaging method. Each crate is lined with a perforated clear plastic bag, and the A Grade grapes are laid carefully in the bag. It was quickly noted that the crates are actually 5Kg crates if one allows for the natural gaps between the berries and bunches to exist. Packing more than 5Kgs in each crate squashed the product damaging the berries and sealing the gaps between the grapes.
Under optimal conditions, each storage crate would be left open and placed before a blast chiller to bring the temperature down to approximately 5°C before a sulfur pad is placed on top of the grapes and the plastic bag folded to close the opening. Once the packing crate has its lid affixed to the crate, the product is ready for storage at between 1.0 and 0.5°C at 97% humidity.
Each consignment of grapes should be marked with details of the grower, product type and variety, and the storage date. The layout of the storage crates in the cold store should be such that it allows the free movement of high humidity 0.5°C air through the perforated bags and evenly circulate the sulfur dioxide produced by the sulfur pads. It was noted later in the storage program that grapes at the bottom of the storage crates with the sulfur pad, showed signs of mold. Although this was during the 8-week period, it shows that the lack of air movement prevented the sulfur dioxide from circulating throughout the perforated bags. Mr. Hazrat noted this too and said that next year he would place sulfur pads at the bottom of the perforated bags as well as on top. At approximately US$0.50per pad, this is an expense he cannot afford, particularly when he can solve the problem by improving perforations in the bags so as to increase airflow and stack the storage crates to allow air movement.
6.6 Adoption of good cold store management practices – Including monitoring during cold storageOnce in cold storage, it is important to maintain the humidity and temperature levels. Constant fluctuation causes dehydration of the berries and allows the growth of pathogens and mold. Mr. Hazrat instructed his staff to monitor the temperature and humidity of the cold storage chamber on a 24-hour cycle. They were instructed to switch on the backup generator when the city electricity supply failed. From interviews carried out by the RADP-N staff with these staff members, this did not happen.
RADP-N placed two Temperature and Humidity Data Loggers in the cold store to get a more accurate reading of conditions inside the cold store chamber during the storage period. The first logger measured for the temperature over a 30-day period while the second logger was expected to measure Temperature and humidity for at least 90 days. Unfortunately, the second logger only reported data between November 12 and 28, 2017. The only explanation for this is that it was tampered with since it stopped recording 2 weeks after being set and reset itself to record for 17 days before stopping again. Despite this, the graphs generated by the two loggers provide useful data which can be seen below.

Nb: Temperature logger used is designed to be used for 30-days only and cannot be reused. The temperature and humidity logger used is re-useable and RADP-N will provide training to the staff at MGCSSC on this unit.
According to the loggers the temperature fluctuated to have the average ambient temperatures in the storage chamber of approximately 3.6°C. This is at least 2.6 degrees higher than what is optimally designed for the storage of grapes. Additionally, the same period, a humidity of 88.6% was recorded instead of the 97% that was required in the design for the preservation of grapes in storage.
It was especially noted with interest that at least two days recorded an average temperature and humidity of 4.9°C and 85% with a high of 8°C at 76% respectively. The actual causes of these highs records were not understood since there is no data for the previous two and a half weeks and these highs were the first reading on the logger once it commenced recording.
These are the key factors of the Aghanization of Cold Storage that RADP-N chose in order to make the activity a success form the point-of-view of demonstrating the possibility of extending the storage time of grapes. At the time of selling, the quality of the grapes was still salable on the local markets. Transporting to more distant markets would be limited and therefore Mr Hazrat needs to know the size of the local market before expanding this activity. For the sake of the future where the product will be exported, the seller should remember that grapes that are still good for consumption in Afghanistan are already past the time it would be considered for rejection in developed countries.Cost-Benefit AnalysisThe cost-effectiveness of a business must always be closely assessed. The extension of the fresh produce for any length of time has a cost implication that should be considered when undertaking such a high-risk project. From RADP-N point-of-view, the main project aim was to demonstrate the capacity of cold stores to extend the life of fresh products. From a sustainability stand point, RADP-N also wanted to ensure that the owner of MGCSSC understood that the program is only successful if after holding fresh produce until the off-season that he would realize a reasonable return on his expenditure.
Measuring the returns of a project can be an elusive process. When the company attempted to hold 210MT of a grape consignment from the 2016 season, Mr. Hazrat thought that he had broken even. However, after proper review, the RADP-N technical team disagreed with this after seeing that Mr. Hazrat had not accurately recorded the total cost of maintaining the cold storage. For the proper accounting to be done and therefore ensure that the cold storage has the effect of providing an improved return on investment, it is vital that the costs associated with the exercise be accurately recorded. This will allow the owner to fully ascertain the level of return and compare it against the realistic risk of incurring additional expense in order to reach a potentially more lucrative market, (measuring risk and reward).
There is an exhibition of a simple Income and Expenditure schedule (Table 2) that RADP-N technical team has compiled, to share with Mr. Hazrat. This schedule should be used as an integral part of improving the 2018 grape storage event along with other factors such as:
Who is the market?
What is the volume of the market?
What is the optimal volume considering the associated risks?
How can the costs of the 2017 program be reduced?
How will MCSSC mitigate its risk?
These are the key factors of the Aghanization of Cold Storage that RADP-N chose in order to make the activity a success form the point-of-view of demonstrating the possibility of extending the storage time of grapes. At the time of selling, the quality of the grapes were still salable on the local markets. Transporting to more distant markets would be limited and therefore Mr Hazrat needs to know the size of the local market before expanding this activity. For the sake of the future where the product will be exported, the seller should remember that grapes that are still good for consumption in Afghanistan are already past the time it would be considered for rejection in developed countries.In the table below the activity showed a negative return after the real expenses had been considered. Given this was a pilot program to prove to stakeholders that it was indeed possible to hold grapes for sale in the off-season, it can be considered a success. To address the financial loss of the activity, RADP-N recommends the following issues be addressed without making changes to the Afghanized approach.

Table 2: Income and expenditure of pilot program to improve cold storage time of Taifi Grapes
If the storage volume is increased, MGCSSC could realize the benefits of economies of scale. The company must, however, test for the optimal level of processes to prevent another loss. RADP-N believes that this can be achieved through:
(1) Fixing two prices when purchasing a vineyard as a whole. Usually, farmers have the approximate price they are prepared to sell at the beginning of the season. This is the cost at which they sell grapes to traders in Mazar City. When selling to MGCSSC, the farmers save the transportation cost to Mazar markets. Mr. Hazrat should, therefore, negotiate and reduce the price of his purchase price by the approximate cost /kg of transportation.
(2) Determine the price by grade and improve in-field grading.. Grade A produce should be preserved through the Afghanization process with the best procedures possible. The other grades should be sold immediately at the local market price to avoid extra costs on grapes which would earn extra. Transportation of Grade B and C grapes in an expensive reefer will occupy valuable space and drive the value down of that particular consignment.
(3) Mr. Hazrat should consider smaller reefers which are less expensive instead of 18MT. An example could be a five or eight MT refrigerated truck. This also works to alleviate the bottleneck at the grading and packaging facility since smaller shipments can be received and processed immediately in the limited area of the purpose built sorting and grading area.
(4) The necessary inputs should be purchased at the right time. If the 17.4MT of stored grapes in the current project had been stored with sulfur pads and therefore sold at the same price of the rest 20MT, a profit of approximately AFN306,263 would have been achieved.
(5) Improving the flow of air through the storage crates and between the grape berries which will increase the storage time. Mr. Hazrat should start sourcing sulfur pads and perforated bags immediately in preparation for the 2018 storage program. For the stacking of the storage crates, there should be the provision for forced air system to circulate the air and allow the sulfur pads to do their job.
Already, Mr. Hazrat has begun the process of preparing two more cold storage chambers at his facility through the conversion of a large chamber into two smaller ones. However, RADP-N recommends that he should work for another season with the facility as it is but increase the storage levels to 60 or 70MT. There will be sufficient space for this expansion once the sorting and grading chamber is returned to a storage chamber at the end the grading and packing stage.
According to RADP-N assessment, with all the above improvements, Mr. Hazrat will be able to hold an increased consignment long enough into the off-season when the farmers do not have grapes to provide to wholesalers. He can, therefore, sell his produce to the markets at much higher prices than he bought the grapes. Table 3 below shows how reducing expenses and ensuring the timely procurement of inputs can result in a 14.3% return on investment over a twelve week period.

Table 3: Shows expected return with above improvements made to address expenses on 37.4MT
The information in Table 4 shows that it is possible to increase the return on investment (RoI) by 27% if Mr. Hazrat increases storage to 75MT of grapes. He could do this by changing the chilling room back into a storage chamber after completing the grading and packing process. This simple income and expenses table assumes that the market can absorb the product at a steady rate atrate at an average cost of AFN63.5/Kg. There is the need to cross-check this so as not to waste resources storing grapes which causesgrapes which cause a saturationsaturation in the market during the off-season driving prices down.

Table 4: Shows a return of 27.5% if storage is increased to 75MT and the improvements to the cold chain processes recommended in this report are considered.
SummaryAlthough the result of this pilot activity in terms of the economic returns was a loss, the project was successful. RADP-N was able to help the cold storage company increase the preservation time of fresh grapes by more than 30% over the attempt by MGCSSC in 2016. Now that Mr. Hazrat knows that the extended preservation is possible, he should start improving the efficiency of operations. This is from the harvesting stage through to the sale of the product. It is important to consider that the increasing volume of supply due to increased cold storage application will affect the wholesale price. It is also important to note that storage with additional sulfur pads cannot be expected to extend the storage time any further than this project achieved. With the improvements made under this activity Mr. Hazrat will be able to sell more than 1,200kgs per day out of season, however it is still undetermined how long he could do this for.
Achieving this milestone means that Mr. Hazrat has reached the best possible quality under the Afghanization of cold storage. To improve the results even further, Mr. Hazrat will have to seek more sophisticated upgrades. This will include expensive equipment such as jet blast chillers, improved refrigeration systems capable of holding the ambient temperature inside the storage chambers at a constant 1.0°C, and ethylene scrubbers. These additions will allow Mr. Hazrat to try the exportation business and access markets such as India, Turkey, and the UAE.