PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A year after trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan was suspended, exporters are struggling with heavy losses, stranded goods and costly alternative routes to Central Asian markets.
Trade between the two countries was halted in October 2025 following deadly clashes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Islamabad has accused militants based in Afghanistan of carrying out attacks in Pakistan, allegations that Kabul denies.
Business groups estimate that more than US$2.5 billion in trade has been lost since then.
The suspension has hit Pakistan’s pharmaceutical industry, which counts Afghanistan as its largest export market, along with businesses that rely on the country as a gateway to Central Asia.
EXPORTERS FACE LOSSES
At the Fedro Pharmaceuticals factory in Hayatabad, on the western outskirts of Peshawar, production continues but the company has had to rethink where to sell its medicines.
Around 70 per cent of the medicines packed at the factory were intended for Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Fedro chief executive Junaid Altaf said the border closure had left the company with orders it could no longer fulfil and packaging materials it could not use.
“When the border got closed, we already had orders. Some of the stock was ready, and some was still in process,” he told CNA, adding that the company had incurred heavy losses.
“(Some) packaging was in Persian, in the Afghan language. For Russia and Uzbekistan, the packaging was in Russian. All that packaging got dumped.”