The Hindu newspaper has reported that Afghanistan, amid escalating political and trade tensions with Pakistan, is seeking to expand direct imports of Basmati rice from India. According to the report, a joint meeting between Indian exporters and Afghan importers is scheduled for next month to explore ways to develop direct trade.<\/p>\n
This meeting is planned following a recent visit by a delegation from the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment to India. Afghan embassy representatives in New Delhi also participated in the discussions, emphasizing an increase in the share of Indian rice in the Afghan market.<\/p>\n
Afghanistan consumes about 500,000 tons of Basmati rice annually, the majority of which has been imported from Pakistan in recent years. However, recent tensions between Kabul and Islamabad have prompted Afghan traders to diversify the sources of this essential commodity.<\/p>\n
Currently, some Indian rice is imported into Afghanistan indirectly through traders based in Iran and Dubai, which results in relatively high transportation costs. The Hindu notes that one option being considered is direct shipment of rice via Iran’s Bandar Abbas port; however, implementing this plan will require specific trade agreements between the two countries.<\/p>\n
The upcoming meeting will discuss issues such as transportation methods, payment mechanisms, and the possibility of barter trade. In this context, Afghanistan\u2019s exports of dried fruits to India could form part of the potential exchanges between the two nations.<\/p>\n
If this plan is realized, India will be able to capture a larger share of Afghanistan\u2019s Basmati rice market \u2014 a market that in recent years has been predominantly controlled by Pakistani exporters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Afghanistan aims to increase direct imports of Basmati rice from India amid political tensions with Pakistan and plans joint trade talks next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16133","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\/16133","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=16133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}