The New Delhi-based Afghan Business Centre is helping Afghanistan-based traders to foray into the Indian market.
Located here, the Afghan Business Centre's task is to help Afghan traders find suitable trading partners in India.
Established in 2013, the Centre has staff from Afghanistan to communicate with local traders in Pashto or Dari.
The centre is a subsidiary of the Pace Group, which was established in 2013 with the support of Horticulture and Agriculture Program (CHAMP) and Export Promotion Agency of Afghanistan (EPPA)
India assists with a wide range of services, including product development, sourcing, packaging, cold storage, logistics and information systems required to coordinate these logistics.
"India in its own hand has done a lot of things for the SAFTA countries particularly Kabul if you look at Government is taken lot of initiative in that for example for fresh fruits there is no custom, on dry fruit there is no duty while there is Surcharge and Additional Duty on dry fruits. So the government has taken initiative I would say still there is 36 percent duty on saffron and walnut was not permitted as an import from Kabul which we had taken from different agencies from Agricultural Ministry on one hand and Plant and Quarantine department on the other hand. So this process three month time and now it is permitted without shell it is permitted from Kabul," said Vinod Rajput, Director, Sales and Marketing, Afghan Business Center.
India has imported 452 million tonnes of fresh and dried fruits from Afghanistan in 2014. The items include melon, grapes, apple, pomegranate and dry fruits.
India allows 70 to 80 products from Afghanistan to enter its market.
"We are here in Afghan business centre we are not only private limited but we are also facilitating the traders like the material comes from Afghanistan while it reaches to Wagha border or in Delhi airport so our facilitation starts from there. We work and assist the commission agents for clearance of the materials and then it comes to the market. Our team will be in the market whether it is midnight or morning. Our team will be in the market and observe how our sales activity goes on", said Nasrat Zaki, Office Manager, Afghan Business Centre.
The Afghan Business Centre also sends experts to train and educate farmers in Afghanistan so that they can produce quality products.
"Our objective is to provide training to the farmers that what should they do so that the produce reaches the market and give them good price and so that's how we are involved in training to the farmers, education to the farmers and then once the produce is done then what action is taken and what precaution should be taken, what packaging should be done because it comes all the way by road from Kabul to Wagha to Delhi", said, Vinod Rajput, Director, Sales and Marketing, Afghan Business Center.
Trade between India and Afghanistan stood at over USD300 million for 2013-2014.
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