Humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and promotion of Kazakhstani goods to the markets of Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and the Middle East

A delegation of representatives of business and government of Afghanistan arrives in Kazakhstan. The first Kazakh-Afghan business forum will be held in Astana on August 3, 2023, and an exhibition of Afghan goods will be held on August 4-5. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Kanat Tumysh and Vice Minister of Trade and Integration Kairat Torebayev told about this and the prospects of trade, economic, diplomatic and humanitarian relations between the two countries at a briefing.

Afghanistan for Kazakhstan is a priority market for flour, which accounts for 70% of the total exports of this product. Last year, the volume of flour supplies increased by 52% (from 895,126 tons in 2021 to 1.3 million tons in 2022), wheat - by 20% (from 571,704 tons in 2021 to 686,729 tons in 2022), sunflower oil – в by 6.2 times (from 2,825 tons in 2021-m to 17,576 tons in 2022), the shipment of rye has begun. Kazakhstan also supplies wheat, sunflower oil, flax seeds to Afghanistan. Recently, exports to Afghanistan have diversified, shipments of medicines, fertilizers and rolled products have stabilized.

«Of all the Central Asian countries, Afghanistan trades with Kazakhstan the most. Last year, the mutual trade turnover reached almost $1 billion. In the coming years, we plan to increase this figure to $3 billion», - said MTI Vice Minister Kairat Torebayev.

Afghanistan is a transport corridor of Central Asia, a connecting bridge between the countries of Central Asia, India and the countries of the Persian Gulf. It opens the possibility for Kazakhstan to access the seaports of Karachi and Gwadar, then to India, the countries of the Middle East, Africa. These are new and very attractive markets for trade for Kazakhstani exporters.

 

For reference: The trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Afghanistan in 2022 amounted to $987.9 million, which is 2.1 times higher than in the same period of the previous year ($474.3 million). At the same time, traditionally, about 90% of this figure falls on Kazakhstan's exports, mainly processed products.

Trade between the countries for 5 months of 2023 amounted to $316.6 million, of which $310 million is accounted for by Kazakh exports.

Kazakhstan has an export potential of supplies to Afghanistan worth more than $500 million in the food, petrochemical, chemical, metallurgical, light, and machine-building industries.