Potato prices plummet after trade suspension with Afghanistan

KARACHI (Web Desk) - Pakistan is facing more than 70pc decline in potato prices in domestic markets after the closure of its border with Afghanistan halted exports to the landlocked country, traders and farmers said on Monday.

Pakistan closed its border crossings at Torkham in the northwest and at Chaman in the southwest in October, following fierce clashes with Afghanistan over a surge in militant attacks inside Pakistan.

The persisting trade blockade is weighing more heavily on Pakistan which, according to official data, enjoyed over $750 million trade surplus with its war-torn neighbor in the last fiscal year that ended in June.

The suspension of trade has brought down the prices of potatoes, Pakistan’s largest vegetable by area and production, by as much as 77 percent in domestic markets in recent weeks.

“The market conditions are very bad as it is over supplied, which is risking the new crop,” said Khalid Mehmood Khokhar, president of the Pakistan Kissan Ittihad (PKI) that represents farmers across the country.

“The 60-kilogram bag of potatoes, which earlier used to be sold at Rs2,600 ($9.3), is now not even fetching its godown rental cost of Rs600 ($2.1).”

Khokhar appealed to the government to resolve the issue of border closures with Afghan government as soon as possible as farmers were facing huge losses, with their produce not even fetching its cost.

“Afghanistan is a big market for Pakistani potatoes,” the PKI president said. “It is also a transit country for our exports to Central Asian countries as well as Russia.”

Pakistan’s commerce ministry spokesperson, Naveed-ul-Haq Kallu, did not respond to a request for comment.

The country of more than 240 million exports vegetables, particularly potatoes, a big chunk of which goes to Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and beyond via Afghanistan.

Pakistan produces more potatoes than it consumes and exports the surplus, according to Khokhar.

The country harvested 9.4 million tons of potatoes from 386,000 hectares in the last fiscal year, which was 12 percent higher than 8.4 million tons of the crop in the preceding year.

The Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) targets the production of 8.9 million tons of potatoes during the 2025-26 Rabi crop season that begins in October and lasts till April.

Malik Nusrat Mahmood, a potato trader in Islamabad, said he was concerned about a lack of buyers for his huge potato stocks, while the new crop was around the corner.

The wholesale price of a 5-kilogram bag of potatoes has declined by as much as 60 percent to Rs80 (less than a dollar) since the exports halted, he said.

“Potato prices have witnessed a significant decline while the new crop has started hitting the market,” he said, voicing his worries.