The Nangarhar Chamber of Commerce and Investment said that Afghan businesspeople suffered a nearly $400 million financial loss over the past eight months because of products detained at Pakistan’s Karachi port.

But Afghan exporters say problems also exist on the Iranian side. Speaking at a seminar on the difficulties currently facing the Afghan businessmen at Iran’s Chabahar Port, members of the Nangarhar Chamber of Commerce and Investment said that the Afghan government has failed to address the problems that the Afghan business community and private sector face in the neighboring countries.

At the seminar, officials from the Iranian embassy in Kabul also confirmed that problems exist at Chabahar Port following the US economic embargo on Iran.

Speakers at the research seminar said that the utilization of Chabahar port is quite beneficial for promoting business between Afghanistan and Iran, but the Afghan business community insists that problems also exist in Chabahar.

“There are problems with this port too, there is a need to take action to remove the difficulties because Chabahar is very important for Afghanistan,” said Hajjatullah Fazli, the CEO of the International Chamber of Commerce and Investment.

“We have suffered major losses after the outbreak of coronavirus, we suffered $450 million,” said Mukhles Ahmad, member of Chamber of Commerce and Investment, referring to freight holdups in Pakistan. 

The business community says that problems in the shipment of goods and port problems are key factors that the Afghan traders face.

“We have heard that this year Afghanistan’s exports will touch $1.2 billion, this is a very small amount, there is a need for more work to be done to increase exports because Afghanistan is not short of anything, so it should have more exports,” said Mohammad Ali Mahmoudi, the Political Attaché of the Iranian embassy in Kabul.

According to the Iranian embassy, the lack of transportation infrastructure and the existence of other challenges hinder Afghanistan’s way to prove itself as the crossroads of a regional transit hub.

The Iranian embassy has also said that Iran will launch more development projects in Afghanistan with the Afghan government.