The Afghan embassy in Islamabad says that a group of people have blocked the road to trucks carrying fresh fruits and vegetables from Afghanistan in the Khyber region of Pakistan.

The embassy said in a post on X that due to the road closure, Afghan businessmen have lost millions of dollars worth of produce.

The embassy said it has discussed the issue with Pakistani authorities many times, but so far no progress has been made in this regard.

The Afghan embassy has asked the Pakistani authorities to pay serious attention to this issue and said Afghanistan is willing to cooperate to resolve trade problems.

Meanwhile in other trade news, reports indicate that transit trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan experienced a significant decline of 59% during Pakistan’s 2023-24 financial year.

Local media reported that Islamabad’s measures to curb smuggling led to a substantial drop in Afghan imports – a drop of $4.21 billion in the 2023-24 fiscal year.

Citing official data, reports stated the transit trade volume of Afghan in this period was $2.89 billion, down from $7.95 billion in the previous fiscal.

Reports indicated that the decline continued into the first month of the new fiscal year, with July 2024 seeing an 83% year-on-year drop in trade, falling to just $9.8 million from $583 million in July 2023.