Who is the Bread Silo Director?

My name is Engineer Ghulam Farouq Nabizada. I am from Parwan province, I was born in a very poor family. But I was lucky and got a good education. I got my Masters in mine exploitation from Kabul University. I have 6 sons and 4 daughters.

Current Director of Silo

In 2000 I was manufacturing alcohol in Pul-e Charkhi, working as planning director. As I was a machinery expert I was sent to the Silo to help them. The Silo’s machines were completely destroyed, because the area was on the frontline for five years. During the war many people were starving in this country. Some of the workers, who had bigger families, used to hide bread in their working suits. The president would see them, but he used to turn his face pretending that he hasn’t seen anything. But the next day he would stop them and say; “Son I saw you yesterday, hiding bread. Don’t do it otherwise I will punish you.”

Silo Building

I designed a plan to reconstruct and reactivate the Silo. After that the Ministry of Light Industries made me Technical Vice President. I have been working at this post since then.
When I came to the Silo it wasn’t able to bake bread or store wheat, but after a while we activated the bakeries. We gave our first bakery lease to a private company, and from the profits we reconstructed other parts of the Silo. 

Worker of Silo

The Silo has been baking the famous ‘Nan-e Silo’ for 57 years. The Kabul Silo has the capacity to store 50,000 tons of wheat. The Silo was one the most important parts of our economy until 1992. We used to feed many ministries, and other governmental organizations. We used to mill 400 tons of wheat through two mills every 24 hours. We produced around 110 tons of baked breads, cookies, and noodles. Every soldier was given 50 Kg of flour monthly, through a coupon service.

Damage Machinery at Silo

The Central Silo has two mills, two bakeries and one huge warehouse. One of the bakeries is contracted to a private company. The other bakery is also working, but not privatized.

The war destroyed the Silo completely, the bakeries, the warehouse, the mills, the workshops. The new government hasn’t spent a penny on the Silo. They told us that the Silo will be reconstructed very soon, almost ten years passed, but nothing happened. 

Bakers at Silo Center

We face many challenges, but we still can compete with the private sector. Despite the fact our machinery is 57 years old, our personnel are very experienced, so they repaired the machines themselves and now we are ready to compete with the private sector. Our customers, whether be government or private sector, tell us what size and what quality they want their wheat to be milled. Before we used to mill just one sort of wheat, but now we can produce all different sorts.

We also serve the Emergency Committee. When they need a warehouse, they bring their wheat or flour, and we store it for them. These warehouses are very important in our country, because when something happens like an earthquake, volcano, flood, and storm and so on, we are ready to help.

Bullets shoots are visible on this historic building

We are not against privatization, if the contractor is an honest person it is very good. We have had meetings with many Afghan businessmen that wanted to take over the Silo, but they wanted to change its name and use. We disagreed, and said no, you have to keep the Silo’s identity.

This Historic Building need our and Govt attention in order to minimize the high price of bread and poverty in Afghanistan

We really need a big Silo in the city, because the international forces import hundreds of tons of bread from Dubai. Why shouldn’t we bake the same bread with the same standards and quality in this country? So if the Silo is equipped with advanced machinery we can provide our national and international customers with the best quality bread and cheaper than they import it.

These all information are property of http://www.kabulatwork.tv...only few of the photos are my own.