Traders worry as Afghan crisis likely to hit dry fruit supplies to Delhi market

The crisis in Afghanistan has thrown traders of Old Delhi’s Khari Baoli market into a state of uncertainty, with most of them speculating unstable supplies and rise in prices of dry fruits that arrive from the strife-torn country in the days to come.

The current crisis in Afghanistan has thrown traders of Old Delhi’s Khari Baoli market into a state of uncertainty, with most of them speculating unstable supplies and rise in prices of dry fruits that arrive from the strife-torn country – which has been taken over by the Taliban militia -- in the days to come.

Nuts and dry fruits make for good snacks to much on while waiting for check-in or upon arrival. (Shutterstock)

The Mughal-era market -- popular for wholesale trade of spices, dry fruits and food grains -- gets around 35,000 tonnes of dry fruits from Afghanistan in a year on average. The most popular among them are fig (anjeer), raisins, apricots, manukka and varieties of nuts and pistachio, said traders in Khari Baoli.

“Currently, prices are up by around 8% - 10% but that is due to a wide variety of reasons, such as the festive season ahead, starting with Raksha Bandhan, rainfall in several parts of the country, and increased transportation and storage cost because of the Covid-19 pandemic. There is too much uncertainty because of the situation in Afghanistan. Prices may shoot up with the disruption in the supply chain,” said Ravindra Mehta, a consultant for import of dry fruits.

On Wednesday, Afghan fig in the market was priced at ₹ 250 – 300 per kg, raisins around ₹1,000 per kg, apricot around ₹600-800 per kg, and munakka around ₹500 per kg.

Taliban forces have reportedly sealed Afghanistan’s Torkham and Chaman borders with Pakistan, the only two land routes used for trade activities from India to Afghanistan and vice-versa, worrying traders across India. Traders here mostly import dry fruits, onions and apples from Afghanistan.

Kanwarjit Bajaj, a Delhi-based trader and president of the Indo-Afghan Chamber of Commerce, said: “Khari Baoli market, on average, records arrival of around 35,000 tonnes of dry fruit from Afghanistan in a year. While the border in Torkham has completely been taken over and has witnessed no trade in the last one week, the one in Chaman has been operating on and off. Things have to become more stable in the days to come otherwise such supply disruptions will surely lead to price rise. India is a big market for Afghan dry fruit farmers. The Indian government should take all possible efforts to preserve the good trade relations in the country.”

In a report (from Amritsar) published earlier this week, HT said the integrated check post (ICP), Attari, which facilitates India’s trade with Pakistan and Afghanistan, has been receiving goods only from Afghanistan since the Indian government abrogated Article 370 in August 2019. In 2019-20, the ICP recorded a business of ₹2,767 crore, which dipped to ₹2,500 crore in 2020-21. Prior to this, the ICP had been netting business between ₹4,000 crore and ₹5,000 crore a year.