KABUL, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- Afghan farmers hoped to harvest up 24,000 tons of pine nuts in 2019, as the production of the valuable dried fruit increased 10 percent compared with last year, a local on-line news agency Wadsam reported Wednesday.

"The Afghan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock has predicted pine nuts production to reach up to 24,000 tons this year, which indicates a 10 percent increase from last year's productions," the first Afghan online business news portal reported on its website.

Production of the pine nuts increased after the ministry planted hundreds and thousands of pine nuts saplings to expand production of the crop within the past couple of years, according to the report.

Pine nuts trees grow in mountainous eastern provinces of Afghanistan, including Khost, Paktia, Paktika, Kapisa, Kunar, Nangarhar, Nuristan and Laghman.

The recently established air corridors have encouraged farmers to produce more pine nuts and enabled Afghanistan to export the valuable dried fruit mostly to China, one of the country's major trading partners.

According to the agency's report, the price of 1 kg of pine nuts in local markets is up to 2,800 afghani, about 36 U.S. dollars.