SalarHaqq
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Afghanistan's foreign trade statistics are quite telling.
It appears that Iran is, of all countries, the top exporter to Afghanistan, with a market share of 14.56% in 2019, which corresponds to some 1.247 billion USD; China's and Pakistan's shares were close though, standing respectively at 13.92% and 12.87%, followed by the USA at 9.15%.
This should not come as too much of a surprise, because after China, Iran has the largest and the most diversified industrial base among Afghanistan's neighbors. Furthermore, considering the significant drop in the value of the Iranian Rial, Iranian-made commodities are competitive on export markets.
Moreover, the fact that the same language (Persian) is spoken in both countries and that some 4 million Afghan immigrants are living in Iran, certainly benefits cross-border business.
This is while Iran does not figure prominently among export destinations from Afghanistan. Indeed, the Afghan economy does not offer many products or resources needed by Iran. A look at Afghanistan's export structure will illustrate this: Iran already produces most of these commodities domestically in sufficient amounts. The bulk of Afghanistan's exports (over 80%) goes to India and Pakistan, whereas Iran's share in 2019 did not surpass 1.72%.
Now of course, these are restricted trade volumes we're talking about, given Afghanistan's regrettably contracted economy. However, what can be deduced from these figures, is that on the economic level, Afghanistan needs Iran much more than vice versa. Surely this will not be lost on whomever is to govern Afghanistan in the foreseeable future.
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Source: https://wits.worldbank.org/countrysnapshot/en/AFG
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Afghanistan's export potential:
Source: https://www.intracen.org/country/Afghanistan/
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Afghanistan's exports 2019 by country
Top export destinations of commodities from Afghanistan in 2019:
Exports structure from Afghanistan in 2019 represented by the following main commodity groups:
What did Afghanistan export in 2019?
Afghanistan's Top Exports in 2019:
Afghanistan's imports 2019 by country
Top trading partners (import sources) of Afghanistan in 2019:
Imports structure to Afghanistan in 2019 represented by the following main commodity groups:
What did Afghanistan import in 2019?
Afghanistan's Top Imports in 2019:
Source: https://trendeconomy.com/data/h2/Afghanistan/TOTAL
It appears that Iran is, of all countries, the top exporter to Afghanistan, with a market share of 14.56% in 2019, which corresponds to some 1.247 billion USD; China's and Pakistan's shares were close though, standing respectively at 13.92% and 12.87%, followed by the USA at 9.15%.
This should not come as too much of a surprise, because after China, Iran has the largest and the most diversified industrial base among Afghanistan's neighbors. Furthermore, considering the significant drop in the value of the Iranian Rial, Iranian-made commodities are competitive on export markets.
Moreover, the fact that the same language (Persian) is spoken in both countries and that some 4 million Afghan immigrants are living in Iran, certainly benefits cross-border business.
This is while Iran does not figure prominently among export destinations from Afghanistan. Indeed, the Afghan economy does not offer many products or resources needed by Iran. A look at Afghanistan's export structure will illustrate this: Iran already produces most of these commodities domestically in sufficient amounts. The bulk of Afghanistan's exports (over 80%) goes to India and Pakistan, whereas Iran's share in 2019 did not surpass 1.72%.
Now of course, these are restricted trade volumes we're talking about, given Afghanistan's regrettably contracted economy. However, what can be deduced from these figures, is that on the economic level, Afghanistan needs Iran much more than vice versa. Surely this will not be lost on whomever is to govern Afghanistan in the foreseeable future.
- - -
Source: https://wits.worldbank.org/countrysnapshot/en/AFG
- - -
Afghanistan's export potential:
Source: https://www.intracen.org/country/Afghanistan/
- - -
Afghanistan's exports 2019 by country
Top export destinations of commodities from Afghanistan in 2019:
- India with a share of 47% (410 million US$)
- Pakistan with a share of 34% (298 million US$)
- China with a share of 3.56% (31 million US$)
- Turkey with a share of 2.88% (25 million US$)
- United Arab Emirates with a share of 2.86% (24 million US$)
- Iran with a share of 1.72% (15 million US$)
- Iraq with a share of 1.66% (14.5 million US$)
- Germany with a share of 1.34% (11.7 million US$)
- Saudi Arabia with a share of 1.08% (9.42 million US$)
- Tajikistan - 5.08 million US$
Exports structure from Afghanistan in 2019 represented by the following main commodity groups:
- 44% (386 million US$): 08 - Edible fruit and nuts; peel of citrus fruit or melons
- 13.2% (115 million US$): 13 - Lac; gums, resins and other vegetable saps and extracts
- 9.27% (80 million US$): 07 - Edible vegetables and certain roots and tubers
- 7.99% (69 million US$): 27 - Mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation; bituminous substances; mineral waxes
- 6.46% (56 million US$): 09 - Coffee, tea, matT and spices
- 4.97% (43 million US$): 12 - Oil seeds and oleaginous fruits; miscellaneous grains, seeds and fruits; industrial or medicinal plants; straw and fodder
- 3.16% (27 million US$): 52 - Cotton
- 2.85% (24 million US$): 57 - Carpets and other textile floor coverings
- 2.18% (19 million US$): 25 - Salt; sulfur; earths and stone; plastering materials, lime and cement
- 1% (8.78 million US$): 10 - Cereals
What did Afghanistan export in 2019?
Afghanistan's Top Exports in 2019:
- 14.9% ($130 million): 0806 - Grapes, fresh or dried.
- 13.2% ($115 million): 1302 - Vegetable saps and extracts; pectic substances, pectinates and pectates; agar-agar and other mucilages and thickeners, whether or not modified, derived from vegetable products.
- 11.5% ($100 million): 0802 - Other nuts, fresh or dried, whether or not shelled or peeled.
- 9.84% ($85 million): 0804 - Dates, figs, pineapples, avocados, guavas, mangoes and mangosteens, fresh or dried.
- 7.98% ($69 million): 2701 - Coal; briquettes, ovoids and similar solid fuels manufactured from coal.
- 4.08% ($35 million): 0703 - Onions, shallots, garlic, leeks and other alliaceous vegetables, fresh or chilled.
- 3.37% ($29 million): 0909 - Seeds of anise, badian, fennel, coriander, cumin or caraway; juniper berries.
- 3.03% ($26 million): 0910 - Ginger, saffron, turmeric (curcuma), thyme, bay leaves, curry and other spices.
- 2.85% ($24 million): 5701 - Carpets and other textile floor coverings, knotted, whether or not made up.
- 2.77% ($24 million): 0702 - Tomatoes, fresh or chilled.
Afghanistan's imports 2019 by country
Top trading partners (import sources) of Afghanistan in 2019:
- Iran with a share of 14.5% (1.24 billion US$)
- China with a share of 13.9% (1.19 billion US$)
- Pakistan with a share of 12.8% (1.1 billion US$)
- USA with a share of 9.14% (783 million US$)
- Turkmenistan with a share of 8.05% (690 million US$)
- Kazakhstan with a share of 6.09% (522 million US$)
- India with a share of 5.29% (453 million US$)
- Uzbekistan with a share of 5.05% (433 million US$)
- Malaysia with a share of 3.74% (320 million US$)
- Turkey with a share of 3.39% (291 million US$)
Imports structure to Afghanistan in 2019 represented by the following main commodity groups:
- 22% (1.94 billion US$): 27 - Mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation; bituminous substances; mineral waxes
- 6.91% (592 million US$): 11 - Products of the milling industry; malt; starches; inulin; wheat gluten
- 5.31% (455 million US$): 15 - Animal or vegetable fats and oils and their cleavage products prepared edible fats; animal or vegetable waxes
- 5.08% (435 million US$): 85 - Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof; sound recorders and reproducers, television image and sound recorders and reproducers, and parts and accessories of such articles
- 4.56% (390 million US$): 68 - Articles of stone, plaster, cement, asbestos, mica or similar materials
- 4.53% (388 million US$): 87 - Vehicles other than railway or tramway rolling stock, and parts and accessories thereof
- 4.18% (358 million US$): 53 - Other vegetable textile fibers; paper yarn and woven fabric of paper yarn
- 4.18% (358 million US$): 90 - Optical, photographic, cinematographic, measuring, checking, precision, medical or surgical instruments and apparatus; parts and accessories thereof
- 3.65% (313 million US$): 99 - Commodities not specified according to kind
- 2.85% (245 million US$): 72 - Iron and steel
What did Afghanistan import in 2019?
Afghanistan's Top Imports in 2019:
- 9.32% ($799 million): 2703 - Peat (including peat litter), whether or not agglomerated.
- 9.23% ($791 million): 2710 - Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, other than crude; preparations not elsewhere specified or included, containing by weight 70 % or more of petroleum oils or of oils obtained from bituminous minerals, these oils being the basic constituents of the preparations; waste oils.
- 6.59% ($564 million): 1101 - Wheat or meslin flour.
- 4.47% ($383 million): 1518 - Animal or vegetable fats and oils and their fractions, boiled, oxidised, dehydrated, sulphurised, blown, polymerised by heat in vacuum or in inert gas or otherwise chemically modified, excluding those of heading 15.16; inedible mixtures or preparations of animal or vegetable fats or oils or of fractions of different fats or oils of this Chapter, not elsewhere specified or included.
- 4.24% ($364 million): 6801 - Setts, curbstones and flagstones, of natural stone (except slate).
- 4.13% ($354 million): 5309 - Woven fabrics of flax.
- 2.8% ($240 million): 9028 - Gas, liquid or electricity supply or production meters, including calibrating meters therefor.
- 2.77% ($238 million): 2711 - Petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons.
- 2.51% ($215 million): 1701 - Cane or beet sugar and chemically pure sucrose, in solid form.
Source: https://trendeconomy.com/data/h2/Afghanistan/TOTAL
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