A food quality control laboratory was opened in Kandahar province on Wednesday.

Officials of the food and drug administration of Afghanistan said that in addition to Kandahar, similar food safety laboratories will be constructed in three other zones of the nation.

"All the equipment of this laboratory is worth $200 to $250 thousand, and our aim is to activate such laboratories in big zones and cities of the country,” said Abdul Bari Omar, chairman of the medical and food department.

"This laboratory was created for two purposes: one is to determine and verify the quality of low-quality food, and the second purpose is to make it easier for traders,” said Naser Faqiri, the head of the laboratory.

The second deputy prime minister, Abdul Salam Hanafi, speaking at the opening of the center, pledged to punish those traders who import poor quality food to the country.

"If someone does that, we will cancel his license, consider him a national traitor, and punish him severely,” Hanafi noted.

"Anyone who imports poor quality food and medicine to Afghanistan is not a businessman, and also he is not a friend to Afghanistan,” said Yunus Momand, head of the Chamber of Commerce and Investment.

The officials of the laboratory said they would set up this facility and soon open similar laboratories for the oversight of medicine throughout the nation.