Afghans hit by rising food prices

Kabul: With snow piled deep in front of his small Kabul shop and a border shutdown enforced by Pakistan driving up food prices and severing a vital lifeline into Afghanistan, Asmatullah is having his own winter of discontent.

Since Pakistan closed supply routes to Nato forces in Afghanistan after the coalition killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in a cross-border air attack in November, ordinary Afghans and foreigners alike are feeling the impact of soaring food costs.

"I have lost 50 per cent of my customers," Asmatullah says, somehow managing a smile as he surveys his empty shop.

The border shutdown, which Pakistan has promised to lift at a time still to be decided, underscores Afghanistan's reliance on food imports through its mountainous eastern border, rather than from Iran in the west and longer, more costly, routes north through ex-Soviet Central Asia. Most food imports come from India, Dubai and Pakistan, and are trucked into the landlocked country from Karachi.

Since the shutdown was imposed, prices for a kilo of chicken have jumped from 200 Afghani (Dh7.35) to 250 Afghani. Tomatoes have more than quadrupled and those for cheese doubled.