Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani, in a televised message, assured people that the government was prepared to tackle public demands for food stuffs.
The message came while some Afghan businessmen have reportedly started hoarding food stuffs— leaving people fearing food shortages amid an increasing coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Ghani said a number of merchants have started spreading rumors about shortages of food in markets aiming to make profits. He assured that the government was working to control prices in market.
President Ghani underlined that 24,000 tons of wheat will be supplied to the country’s vulnerable areas in case of emergency.
Ghani said that the country’s main borders are open around the clock. The Afghanistan Railway Authority, in a statement issued today, 17 March, said that out of 215 wagons of commercial goods entering Afghanistan from Hairatan, Aqina, and Turqundi borders, 139 of them are food stuffs. A total of 9,014 tons of edible stuffs including flour, oil, rice, and other additives are imported to Afghanistan.
In the next 15 days, 75,000 tons of wheat will be imported from India. Another 50,000 tons of wheat would be purchased from the same country and would be imported to Afghanistan in the coming weeks.
In the last two days, food prices including oil and flour have jumped in the markets as a result of fear of coronavirus outbreaks and a likely lock down of the capital Kabul and other major Afghan cities.
