TEHRAN, Iran, Dec.1
Trend:
Iran and Afghanistan trade have been reduced due to Coronavirus but it has increased after reopening borders, said the head of Iran-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce.
"Export and import volume during the first two months of the current Iranian year (started March 20, 2020) has declined but by reopening borders export increased. Unfortunately, borders and customs could not handle this volume of cargo transit and could not load cargo in a short time," said Hossein Salimi told Trend in an interview.
"The problem was discussed with customs and agreed that the customs' working hour would increase, and customs agreed to increase working shifts," he said.
Salimi went on to say that although the other side has problem and Afghanistan customs is not equipped to accept this volume of trucks, therefore, cargo leaves Iran fast and would get stuck in traffic on the Afghan side that was.
"Iran has exported $2.4 billion goods to Afghanistan in last Iranian year (started March 21, 2019), although the export of goods was halted for a month during Coronavirus spread it has been predicted that the country would export between $2.7 to $2.8 billion goods to Afghanistan," he added.
According to him one of the issues in importing goods from Afghanistan is that the country only exports agricultural products including fruits. Furthermore, Iran has a problem in quarantining agricultural commodities and the Ministry of Agriculture is not interested due to its strict pest control policy.
"Iran has imported $20 million goods from Afghanistan in the last Iranian year (started March 21, 2019) that was very little compared to Iran's export. During a meeting with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, they insisted to increase their export to Iran, they (Afghans) believe that Iran should be an export destination for their agricultural goods like other destinations including Canada and Australia but Iran is more strict in preventing pest, " he noted.
Iran's major export to Afghanistan are construction material and ceramic tile, other items are oil products such as engine oil, antifreeze, and anything easy and cheap to transport, in this field, there are fewer countries to compete with Iran.
"Diverse food items are being exported to Afghanistan due to similar taste in food between Iranians and Afghans. Fruit juice, canned food, and other items are exported to Afghanistan. One-third of Iran's export is food items, one third is construction material, and one third oil products" he pointed out.