Afghanistan is rushing to diversify its trade partners after a fatal border clash with Pakistan last month brought ties to their floor in years, impacting individuals on both sides of the frontier.
The South Asian neighbours have actually been secured a progressively bitter disagreement considering that the Taliban took control of Kabul in 2021, with Islamabad implicating Afghanistan of harbouring the militants behind cross-border attacks– charges the Taliban federal government rejects.
Abdul Ghani Baradar, Afghanistan’s deputy prime minister for financial affairs, advised traders recently to “redirect their trade toward other alternative routes instead of Pakistan”
Pakistan is landlocked Afghanistan’s leading trading partner, providing rice, pharmaceuticals and basic materials, while taking in 45 percent of Afghan exports in 2024, according to the World Bank.
More than 70 percent of those exports, worth $1.4 billion, are disposable farm items such as figs, pistachios, grapes and pomegranates.
Check out: Afghan commerce minister looks for assistance for exports, imports from India
Lots of Afghan trucks were stranded with decomposing fruit and vegetables when the frontier shut on October 12 due to lethal cross-border fire, which was followed by a vulnerable truce.
Losses have actually topped $100 million on both sides, and as much as 25,000 border employees have actually been impacted, according to the Pakistan Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PAJCCI), which looks for to promote bilateral trade.
Baradar alerted traders that Kabul would not step in if they kept counting on Pakistan.
Cautious of additional interruptions, the Taliban federal government is now hedging its bets with Iran, Central Asia– and beyond.
Pomegranates to Russia
Trade with Iran and Turkmenistan has actually leapt 60-70 percent given that mid-October, stated Mohammad Yousuf Amin, head of the Chamber of Commerce in Herat, in western Afghanistan.
Kabul likewise sent out apples and pomegranates to Russia for the very first time last month.
Russia is the only nation to have actually formally identified the Taliban administration.
Taliban leaders long for larger acknowledgment and foreign financial investment, however sanctions on senior figures have actually made financiers cautious.
The large market in India is a prime tourist attraction. On Sunday, state-owned Ariana Afghan Airlines cut freight rates to the nation of 1.4 billion individuals.
2 days later on, Kabul sent its commerce and market minister to New Delhi.
“Afghanistan has too many fruits and vegetables it cannot store because there are no refrigerated warehouses,” stated Torek Farhadi, a financial expert and previous IMF advisor.
“Exporting is the only way,” he informed AFP. And rapidly, before the items ruin.
Kabul promotes Iran’s Chabahar port as an option to Pakistan’s southern harbours, however Farhadi noted it is further, more expensive and hindered by United States sanctions on Tehran.
‘Distraught’
“It’s better for both countries to end this trade war… They need each other,” Farhadi stated.
Afghanistan depends on Pakistan’s market of 240 million individuals and its sea gain access to, while Islamabad desires Afghan transit to reach Central Asia for fabric and energy trade.
Pakistan states the closure curbs militant seepage, however its economy is likewise feeling the pinch.
In Peshawar, near the frontier, Afghan produce has actually all however disappeared from markets.
Grapes cost 4 times more, and tomatoes have more than doubled to over 200 rupees (70 cents) a kg, an AFP reporter discovered.
On Monday, the PAJCCI advised Islamabad to act, caution of installing expenses as shipping containers bound for Afghanistan and Central Asia stay stuck in Pakistan.
Each container is acquiring $150-$200 in everyday port charges, the group stated, including: “With thousands of containers stuck, the collective economic burden has become unbearable and continues to grow with each passing day.”
Truck chauffeur Naeem Shah, 48, has actually been waiting at the Pakistani border town of Chaman with sugar and cooking oil bound for Afghanistan.
“I haven’t been paid for a month. No matter who I call, they say there is no money because the border is closed,” he informed AFP.
“If it doesn’t reopen, we will be distraught.”
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