Iran’s annual export to Afghanistan predicted to hit $3b by next March

The value of Iran’s exports to Afghanistan is anticipated to reach $3 billion in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021), according to the chairman of Iran-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce.

Referring to Iran’s rising trend of exports to its neighbor Afghanistan in recent months, Hossein Salimi said that based on the studies, the country’s expected value of exports to Afghanistan will be materialized this year, Mehr news agency reported.

He further pointed to the problem of transferring goods via Milak border and said, “This problem has been removed and commodities are currently transported via Milak and Dogharoon borders without any problem.”

He explained that there was a problem with fueling trucks at Milak border, but this problem has been resolved and the transfer of goods is now underway at this border.

About the decrease in the exports of Iranian products to Afghanistan in the first two months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-May 22) due to the coronavirus pandemic, the chairman of Iran-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce said, “Trend of Iranian products export to Afghanistan has been accelerated in a way that the country is compensating its export decline to this country.”

The Milak border crossing between Iran and Afghanistan in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan was reopened on August 14 following the signing of a border agreement between the two neighbors, the spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) said.

The mentioned border crossing was closed and reopened several times in the past few weeks due to a strike by Afghan truckers and their blockade of the return route of Iranian trucks and the Iranian retaliation.

According to Ruhollah Latifi, the signing ceremony was attended by officials from both sides including the Acting Deputy Governor of Sistan-Baluchestan Province for Economic Affairs Madana Zanganeh, and the head of Milak Customs.

Milak border terminal was first reopened earlier this month after a week of closure and over 70 Iranian truckers returned to the country, however, Afghan truck drivers once again closed the crossing in Afghanistan's Nimruz Province and Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan Province, only a couple of days after it was reopened.

Milak is a village in Jahanabad Rural District, in the central district of Hirmand County, Sistan-Baluchestan Province.

source: TehranTimes