Afghanistan- Taliban crisis seems not to be a barrier when it comes to exporting agriculture produce in the conflict ridden country. After dry fruits & fresh vegetables, now fresh fruits including Sharda (a melon variety), pomegranate, apple and grapes are being imported by India through the Integrated Check Post (ICP) near Attari border.
Over 70 trucks laden with dry fruits, fresh fruits, spices, cereal, and others cross over to India every day after the Afghanistan government opened the Chaman border over a fortnight ago.
The political unrest in the country and wars with the Taliban have been disturbing Afghanistan since the 1970s. At the same time, Many horticulturists consider Afghanistan as the cradle of global fruit production because the country has many varieties of fruit trees.
Apart from fresh fruits, moong dal, onion, cumin seeds and a variety of dry fruits are being imported from Afghanistan. A wholesale fruit trader from Delhi told that the complete fresh fruit batch was being imported by Delhi-based importers and then distributed in the markets of Northern India.
He said, “Work can be done to make Afghanistan the international fresh farm fruit and vegetable trading hub by developing the wholesale fruit and vegetable market". Afghanistan is connected to the Central Asian countries such as Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan via Pakistan by road but the true potential has not been harnessed just yet.
“While it has an international airport and an international bus terminal offering bus services between India and Pakistan, there is policy paralysis to harness it to its true potential,” Wholesaler said.
India’s Imports from Afghanistan:
Afghanistan’s major exports to India Include dry fruits & Spices. Nuts, melons, resins, spices, coffee, tea, etc had the highest export value in 2019. According to the government data, the bilateral trade between the two countries crossed $1.5 billion in 2019-2020 fiscal.
