generals were keen to be photographed alongside a local success story. When it opened, inside huge white sheds that once held PVC piping machinery but is now home to high-tech German injection moulding and boot-making equipment, Afghan and U.S. “The Afghan government gave me only three months notice of cancellation and now I have $30 million (18 million pounds) worth of raw material I can’t use.” government told me when I started I would have contracts for five years, until at least 2014,” he told Reuters. decision to hand procurement to the Afghan government has left Saffi with something of a developed world problem - local officials opted for cheaper boots made in China and Pakistan, killing off Milli’s contracts after a year.

Saffi’s Milli Boot Factory, in Kabul’s sprawling industrial hinterland, was a model for Afghanistan, showcasing local manufacturing while giving jobs to hundreds of people who may have otherwise have picked up insurgent guns.īut a U.S. Gazing glumly over millions of dollars worth of machinery which used to churn out thousands of police and army boots each day but now sits wreathed in plastic sheeting, Saffi fears he is seeing the death of an Afghan dream. Farhad Saffi, the owner of Milli Boot Factory, stands in his factory in Kabul April 14, 2012.

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