Afghanistan exports have plunged drastically as air corridors to overseas have been suspended after Taliban took power, Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment said Sunday.
According to ACCI officials, the suspension of flights via air corridors has created challenges in exporting merchants’ goods abroad. The officials said they have been trying to solve the problem, but have made no progress to date, according to Tolo News.
“ACCI had been trying to bring facilities and easi-ness, but so far, there is no progress,” ACCI’s dep-uty head Khairuddin Mayel said.
Before the collapse of the former government, Af-ghan goods used to be transported out of the country to world markets through air corridors from airports in four provinces: Kabul, Kandahar, Balkh and Herat, according to Tolo News.
Meanwhile, a number of traders urged the Taliban to solve the problem and facilitate the export of goods to world markets via air corridors.
Further, according to ACCI, currently, only the air corridor between Afghanistan and China is active, and so far 1,500 tons of pine nuts have been ex-ported to China in cargo flights.
ACCI’s statistics show that in the past five years, 1,800 flights transported goods valued at USD 600 million through air corridors to a number of coun-tries including India, the United Arab Emirates, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany.—AT
