The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has led to a spike in the prices of commodities that are imported by India. The contract between the countries coming to a stop due to this reason. The various kind of dry fruits and spices are short in supply. In addition, the prices of these commodities have also skyrocketed in a couple of days.
India imports around 85% of the dry fruits from Afghanistan. So it’s a very important market. And the problem that the traders are facing is the short supply of spices and dry fruits. Secondly, there is an increase in the number of dry fruits and spices various dry fruits like figs, almonds, pistachios, raisins.
The traders out here are looking right now for multiple options. One, they are looking for other countries from which they can import the dry fruits, but under the South Asian free trade area where they can import the dry fruits duty-free. So this is one of the options that the traders of dry fruits are looking out for.
India imports around 510 million worth of commodities from Afghanistan. After the Taliban has taken over the routes through which the transit happened have been completely closed. One of the routes is through the sea through Iran’s Chabahar port from where the goods can reach India.
Another route is through a tarry integrated border with Pakistan. With the Taliban taking over both, these routes are shut. Due to which the commodities are not able to reach India. In the last couple of weeks, the prices have gone up to 30 to 70% hike.
