TEHRAN - Iran and Afghanistan have discussed expanding agricultural trade, operating customs facilities around the clock and resolving problems faced by Afghan merchants, in a meeting held to prepare for the next session of the two countries’ joint economic commission.
Iran’s Minister of Agriculture Gholamreza Nouri Qezeljeh met Afghanistan’s Minister of Finance Mullah Mohammad Naser in Tehran, where the two sides reviewed border trade facilitation, customs operations and the volume of imports and exports between the neighbors.
“Important matters such as facilitating border exchanges, customs operations, speeding up border traffic and increasing the volume of import and export exchanges were examined in this meeting,” Nouri Qezeljeh said, outlining the government’s economic development plans.
The talks also covered exports of Afghan agricultural products to Iran, the removal of obstacles facing Afghan traders, and measures to prevent the smuggling of goods across the shared frontier. Both sides reviewed arrangements for the forthcoming meeting of the joint economic commission.
Nouri Qezeljeh put current bilateral trade at approximately $2.7 billion and said he expected the figure to rise.
“We predict that with the current trend and reciprocal visits of officials, the volume of exchanges will increase soon,” he said.
The minister went further than trade facilitation, proposing that Iranian firms move into production inside Afghanistan rather than simply exporting to it.
“Our proposal for utilizing Afghanistan’s climate is the transfer of technology and technical and engineering services,” he said. “That means Iranian companies should have a deeper presence in production chains inside Afghanistan, including poultry farming and agricultural industries.”
The approach would shift the relationship from cross-border commodity sales toward joint value chains, with Iranian technical capacity applied to Afghan land, water and growing conditions.
Iran and Afghanistan share a border of roughly 900 kilometers, with the Dogharoun, Milak and Mahiroud crossings handling most commercial traffic.
Iranian officials have recently introduced a dedicated truck lane at Dogharoun for direct through-transport, part of a wider effort to cut waiting times at land borders.
For landlocked Afghanistan, Iranian territory offers access to open sea through Bandar Abbas and the southeastern port of Chabahar, which has been developed with Indian participation as a route bypassing Pakistan.
Iran has repeatedly identified Afghanistan as a market for technical and engineering services as well as a transit partner.