Basic textile exports to Afghanistan amid crisis
As the Afghanistan crisis intensifies, Indian trade worth US$1.50 billion has been stopped abruptly and hangs in balance. Since the past 20 years, India’s bilateral trade with Afghanistan has grown by leaps and bounds, peaking US$1.50 billion in 2019-20 with increases in both, imports and exports.
India imports around 85% of its dry fruits along with most of the piquant spices while exports from India include garments, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, computers, hardware materials, cement, sugar and synthetic fibre. However, trade balance is heavily tilted in India’s favour as India’s exports have seen a whopping 63% rise in the last five years.
In 2020-21, India’s total exports to Afghanistan stood at US$825 million, whereas imports were at US$509 million.
Basic textile exports
Basic textile exports to Afghanistan comprising fibres, spun, filaments and fabric shipment had recently peaked to US$375 million in 2019-20, accounting for about 4% of total basic textile exported from India during the year. It was just at US$11 million in 2016-17, but climbed to US$97 million in 2017-18 and further to US$102 million in 2018-19. Since its peak of 2019-20, exports dwindled back to US$100 million in 2020-21. The first four months of 2021-22, before the crisis, export has been just US$40 million, implying that it would have crossed US$200 million had the crisis not erupted. And that too, when India textile exports were on a rebound mode after been catapulted by COVID-19 since April 2020.
What Afghan buy
Almost all basic textile exports to Afghanistan were of fabric material. The major types of fabric export were those made of nylon, polyester filament, and of poly/viscose. About 12% of all nylon and poly/viscose fabric exports were destined to Afghanistan and about 3% of polyester filament fabric.
Goods travel by
As Afghanistan is a land locked country, major consignments of basic textile exports to Afghanistan are route through the Bandar Abbas port in Iran and Karachi port in Pakistan. Cargoes are also directly destined to Kabul.