{"id":13925,"date":"2026-05-30T07:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T07:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/2026\/05\/30\/afghanistan-imports-central-asia-1-2-billion-trade-imbalance\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T07:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T07:00:22","slug":"afghanistan-imports-central-asia-1-2-billion-trade-imbalance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/2026\/05\/30\/afghanistan-imports-central-asia-1-2-billion-trade-imbalance\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan&#8217;s Imports from Central Asia Reach $1.2 Billion, Exports Lag Far Behind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Taliban&#8217;s Ministry of Industry and Commerce has announced that Afghanistan&#8217;s imports from Central Asian countries have reached 1.204 billion dollars, while exports to these countries stand at only about 74 million dollars; a figure that highlights a significant trade imbalance between the two sides.<\/p>\n<p>Abdussalam Jawad Akhundzada, the ministry&#8217;s spokesperson, shared these figures with the media, explaining that the majority of Afghanistan&#8217;s exports to Central Asia consist of agricultural products and minerals. According to him, fresh and dried fruits, vegetables, talc stone, medicinal plants, fruit juices, potatoes, onions, and asafoetida are among the main export items to the region.<\/p>\n<p>Although Central Asia is geographically one of the closest and most accessible markets for Afghanistan, the wide gap between imports and exports indicates that existing capacities have not been effectively managed. Experts believe this imbalance could place additional pressure on the country&#8217;s economy.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, several Afghan traders have complained about the lack of banking facilities, transit problems, and high transportation costs, saying these challenges have hindered the expansion of exports. They emphasize that the Taliban administration must take practical steps to improve trade infrastructure and facilitate commercial activities.<\/p>\n<p>Central Asia, with its growing population and increasing demand for agricultural and mineral products, represents a potential market for Afghan goods; however, making use of this opportunity depends on resolving banking and transit obstacles and establishing clear supportive trade policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Afghanistan&#8217;s imports from Central Asia hit $1.2B, with exports at $74M, revealing a large trade imbalance and economic challenges under Taliban rule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-important-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}