ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Apple orchards in Erbil province have yielded plenty of bounty this harvest. However, farmers say they are not reaping the expected financial gains with the illegal smuggling of the fruit from Iran.

Majid Nabi, a farmer in Haji Omaran, has experienced big losses from the product on his five-dunam apple orchard.

“Out of the 25 tonnes I sent to Erbil, I have lost. I got only 6,000 IQD ($4.5),” he said, noting that he has an additional 30 tonnes of unharvested apples.

“If I harvest it and take it to Erbil, I will not even get the workers' cost. Is it fair to work to raise an apple orchard for 17 years and now lose? It costs me 500 IQD ($0.42) to produce one kilo of apples. It now sells for 350 to 400 IQD ($0.28-$0.32). I may lose about 100 IQD ($0.12) per kilo,” he added.

A lack of cold storage and juice factories have forced farmers to sell the product regardless of the losses.

Although the Kurdistan Regional Government’s ministry of agriculture has banned the importing of apples, the illegal smuggling of the fruit from Iran has proliferated.

“The apples are not even sold for 500 IQD ($0.42) per kilo. The reason for that is the import of the Iranian apples which prevent the export of our apples to other Iraqi provinces,” said Bapir Warti, a farmer from Balakayati area who brought his products to Erbil’s market on Thursday.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, orchards make up nearly 500,000 dunams of land in the Kurdistan Region but there is no exact number of how much land grows apples.

The Kurdistan Region produces only 25% of the 200,000 tonnes of apples its residents consume a year.

Rudaw