First shipment of India’s wheat arrives in Kabul

Monitoring Desk

KABUL: The first consignment of more than 2,400 tons of wheat from India arrived in Kabul on Saturday. It is part of at least 30,000 tons of wheat so far shipped to Afghanistan through Chabahar Port. Minister of Agriculture Naseer Ahmad Durrani and Charge d’Affairs of India in Afghanistan Alok Ranjan Jha attended an event in Kabul to welcome the arrival of the shipment.

The agriculture minister said the 2,440 tons of wheat will be stored in government storages in Ghazni, Nangarhar, Herat, Laghman, Kandahar, Helmand and Kabul provinces. He said Afghanistan has purchased 100,000 tons of wheat from Uzbekistan which have been stored in government storages in north and northeastern provinces including Balkh, Baghlan, Kunduz, Badakhshan and Takhar.

“We want to store 3,000 tons of wheat in Helmand, 2,000 tons in Ghazni, 18,000 tons in Herat, 15,000 tons in Kandahar, 63,000 tons in Kabul, 1,000 tons in Laghman and 8,000 tons in Nangarhar,” he said.  At the same event, Charge d’Affairs of India in Afghanistan, Alok Ranjan Jaha, said the new route, Chabahar Port, will provide the opportunity for a greater trade in the region.

“Afghanistan is a landlocked country. It is its international right to have access for trade which is being denied by a particular country in the region and it is very important for India, Afghanistan and the region beyond to make sure that this new trade route flourishes, develops and gives all our countries in the region more opportunities for greater trade,” he said. The shipment is part 1.1 million of wheat pledged by India to Afghanistan in 2002. More than 700,000 tons of wheat has already been supplied to Afghanistan which is part of the 110,000 tons that will arrive to the country in one year.