Green Raisins

Shade-dried long green Kishmish & Sabz by berry length

Green raisins are the shade-dried product of the raisin complex and that single fact explains both the price and the specification. Rather than being sun-dried in the field or tunnel-dried with SO₂, the bunches are hung in ventilated mud-brick drying houses (kishmishkhana) for four to six weeks, sometimes after a light dip in an oil-and-potash emulsion to speed water loss through the cuticle. Chlorophyll is retained instead of destroyed, so the berry stays green and develops the long, slender, translucent shape the grade is named for. CBIL arranges long green raisins — Afghan Sabz and Shundokhani, Iranian green Kishmish, and Indian green from the Sangli and Nashik belts — graded principally on berry length and uniformity (long, medium and short), then on green colour intensity against the physical standard, then on Sortex class and stem/cap carry-over. Moisture runs tighter than golden at roughly 12–15% because the shade-drying takes it lower, sugar sits around 70–75% on a dry basis, and much of the traditional Afghan material is genuinely SO₂-free — which is why clean-label buyers gravitate to it. Where a lot is sulphured we arrange it at ≤ 1,000 ppm and declare the number rather than leaving it to arrival testing.

Specify green over golden, black or sultana when the berry is the hero and the shape and colour are the reason someone is buying the pack: premium gifting, Middle East and South Asian retail, dry-fruit assortments, kulfi and dessert garnish, upmarket trail mixes and confectionery panning. It is the most expensive raisin type in the family for a real reason — a six-week drying cycle in a fixed-capacity drying house cannot be scaled the way a sun-drying field or a tunnel can, so supply is genuinely tight in a short crop. If you are grinding the berry into a paste or burying it in a dark bake, green is the wrong product and you are paying for a colour that will not survive your process. Every lot ships against SGS or Intertek certification of moisture, sugar, SO₂ ppm, berry length distribution, foreign matter, capstem count and pesticide residue to destination MRLs, with phytosanitary documentation, in 10 kg and 12.5 kg lined cartons or 14 kg bags, dry or reefer container, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms.