Afghanistan has been blessed as a large gem reserve country with a history of emerald mining and trade for over 7,000 years. The emerald from Afghanistan is a very beautiful emerald, and they can be found in historical collections around the world, including the British Crown Jewels, the Royal Crown Jewels in Russia, and the Taj Mahal of India.

The Panjshir Valley, located north of Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan, is an area with over 300 mines, mining hidden emerald treasures known as the Panjshir Emerald. This gem has a unique turquoise color that makes them one of the most outstanding treasures of the country.

Razaie, who grew up in Pakistan and Australia, is the co-founder of Afghan Gems, an emerald mining and exporting company of Panjshir, mining in Afghanistan. His father has been a miner and has run the jewelry business in Central Asia and European countries since the early 1960s. Razaie’s father's knowledge connects him and his homeland with a distinctive style. The business is headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand, and the processing center for gem cutting is located in Si Racha District, Chonburi Province. There, rough emerald stones are cut into beautiful gems.

Since launching in 2003, Afghan Gems has become one of the key suppliers of the Panjshir emerald, conducting legal mining and maintainingsustainable development. Afghan Gems has transported more than 15,000 carats of raw materials. It also owns three mines and four acres of land in the Panjshir valley.

This unique position allows Afghan Gems to be competitive on the global market. Currently, the world's top emerald mining countries are Zambia, Zimbabwe and Colombia, which occupy the largest area of mining – producing many products around the world. These countries buy and sell jewels worth around $2 billion per year.

On the other hand, Afghanistan sells about $300 million worth of Panjshir Emerald a year. "Most are illegal trades", Razaie says, and both sellers and miners tend to be paid less than the value of jewels. "Afghanistan has a lack of education and there are many people in the gem industry that are not professionally licensed and bring out gems illegally", Razaie adds.

In the Panjshir valley, the emerald mining is owned and operated by an elder community. "This has been around for many generations," Razaie explains. But digging is often associated with explosives and is not only dangerous, the process also causes stones and gems to crack", Razaie adds.

In 2018, Razaie launched his second business in Thailand under the name AfghanGems.Thailand, and in the following year he opened his third business as ArsiraGems in order to fully increase the value of gemstones by using gems to make beautiful jewelry, combined with real diamonds and real gold. As well as this, he opened Inter Trading Center Co., Ltd. as part of a plan to trade emeralds legally from Panjshir to the world market, including through JTC Bangkok and Chanthaburiof Thailand. 

Due to the desire to legalize the jewelry trade in Afghanistan through AfghanGems.Thailand, Razaie says “We want to put Panjshir emeralds on the world map," His dream is that “there is no reason why Afghanistan cannot be the first country to have the best emerald mines in the world".