Small-scale farmers are expected to harvest about 150,000 tons of grapes in Herat province this year, agriculture department officials said Sunday. The Herat Department of Agriculture and Livestock said more than 60 percent of these grapes will become raisins and then exported.We are now in the grape harvest season; fortunately, Herat plays an important role in the field of grapes; there are 12,120 hectares under cultivation, and we expect to produce nearly 150,000 tons,& said Hamidullah Naseri, the provincial head of the agriculture and livestock department.A shortage of cold storage units and the closure of air cargo corridors for the purpose of exporting Herat grapes has forced local farmers to turn their attention to raisins instead. Due to the lack of cold storage facilities and the lack of air corridors and foreign flights, we could not export grapes this year, so more attention is paid to raisins,& said Bashir Ahmad Bahaderi, head of Herat Chamber of Agriculture and Livestock.Currently, gardeners harvest more than 70 types of grapes in this province, but most of their harvest is sold at very low prices on the domestic market.We have a lot of problems in the market for selling grapes, we buy fertilizer for 6,600 AFN, but once we bring the grapes to the market, we sell them for 60 or 70 AFN,& said Esmatullah, a farmer.  The post Farmers to harvest 150,000 tons of grapes in Herat province this year first appeared on Ariana News.