“For Export to Afghanistan Only”

Ahmad Masoud, founder and director of CI member Consumers Rights and Services Organization  (CRSO), documents the state of consumer rights in Afghanistan via his monthly blog. In this latest instalment, he looks at the import of poor quality food and medicine from Pakistan.

Many Pakistani products marketed in Afghanistan are marked either “For Export to Afghanistan” or “Not for sale in Pakistan. Export to Afghanistan only”. These messages have led many Afghan consumers to question the quality of the products which carry such messages.

It is interesting to see that the products of some multinational Pakistan-based corporations such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Merck and Nestle also contain the same messages.

For example, Augmentin (Co-amoxiclav), a penicillin antibiotic widely used in Afghanistan, a product of Pakistan GSK; Cosome-E cough syrup is a product of Merck Pakistan; and Nestle’s dairy products, including Cerelac, a baby food all contain labels with similar messages.

“The messages may serve two purposes,” according to Ahmad Farid, a business development manager in Kabul. “First, it might be an effort by the Pakistan side to prevent re-sale of these products back in Pakistan for taxation reasons.

And the second reason, which reflects the view of the majority of the Afghans, is that these products may be of low quality and not suitable for sale in Pakistan.”

According to Pakistan’s Ministry of Commerce,  Afghanistan is a major trading partner of Pakistan. An official from the Ministry of Commerce has recently said that Afghanistan is the third largest export destination for Pakistan products.

In fact, bilateral trade between the two countries has increased from 830.2 million USD in 2006-07 to 2.5 billion USD in 2010-11.

A Pakistan official recently told the media that the two countries have set a goal to increase the level of  bilateral trade up to $5 billion USD by 2015. But experts believe that it would be impossible to achieve this goal unless the quality of Pakistani products is improved.

“The results of a survey conducted by Afghan firm Safe Express Group of Companies indicate that eatables imported from Pakistan could not compete with similar products from other countries for the price and quality reasons; however, because of proximity, most Pakistani products find their way to Afghanistan,” Farid explains.

Dr. Ahmad Javid says that there is a significant difference between the quality of Augmentin, Merip, and Hydryllin cough syrup and many other medicines which are manufactured for use in Pakistan and those which are for export to Afghanistan.

“Those medicines which are manufactured for use in Pakistan are more effective than those which are manufactured for export to Afghanistan,” Javid concludes.

Consumer Rights and Services Organization (CRSO) is calling on the government of Afghanistan,  national and international organisations, including the World Health Organization to help with ensuring the quality of these products, especially those which directly affect the health and safety of children in Afghanistan.

It is the basic right of every Afghan citizen to have access to good quality food and medicines; therefore, the government of Afghanistan should take the lead in ensuring that the right of its citizens are met.

Read the other Afghan Consumer Diary blogs. 

As basic needs go unmet, 133 children die a day in Afghanistan

Ahmad Masoud, founder and director of CI member Consumers Rights and Services Organization (CRSO), documents the state of consumer rights in Afghanistan via his monthly blog. In this latest instalment, he reflects on the myriad problems in providing basic access to water, sanitation and healthcare.

According to available figures, about 73 percent of people in Afghanistan lack access to clean drinking water and 95 percent do not have access to sufficient sanitation. As a result, diarrhoeal diseases are responsible for the death of 48,545 children every year in the country.

Lack of access to clean drinking water and sanitation is a chronic problem not only in rural areas, but also in most of the Afghan cities which are developing — unplanned — at a rapid rate.

Even in the Afghan capital, Kabul, barely 25 percent of people have direct access to potable water.

The overall majority of people in Afghanistan do not have access to running water, they fetch water from open sources such as rivers, springs, streams, ponds and wells.

The water taken from the open sources is usually contaminated and its use usually leads to wide-spread, water-born diseases.

Afghanistan has 2,775 cubic meters surface water per capita per year. Experts believe that 1,700 cubic meters of water per capita per year is sufficient to satisfy the water needs of the country for domestic use, food production, industrial use, and uses for energy and the environment.

However, Afghanistan lacks the capacity to properly utilize, manage and distribute the water to meet the water demands of its citizens.

It’s not just the water

There is one health worker per 7,000 Afghans, according to the United National Consolidated Appeal 2012 and one female health worker per 23,000 Afghan females.

The Consolidated Appeals also reports that the number of teachers in schools remains well below international standards, with one teacher per 101 students, and one female teacher for every 344 female students.

The results of the Afghanistan Mortality Survey Report 2010 indicate that nearly 57.4 percent of the population in Afghanistan live within one hour’s walking distance from a public health facility.

Therefore, limited access to medical facilities and the absence of knowledge, skills and the ability to effectively manage diarrhoeal diseases usually leads to the death of 133 children per day.

The government of Afghanistan has reaffirmed its commitment to reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), including increasing access to safe drinking water from 27 to 50 percent and to proper sanitation from five to 50 percent by 2014.


By 2020, they aim to increase access to both by 100 percent.

However, experts believe that the informal development of cities, lack of central sewage systems, large levels of migration from rural to urban areas, political and social instabilities, natural disasters, continuous droughts in most parts of the country, and lack of an effective coordination between government institutions and national and international organisations will make it impossible for the government of Afghanistan to reach the MDG in safe drinking water and sanitation by 2020.

CRSO calls on the government of Afghanistan and international organisations to seriously work for the development and implementation of an integrated health policy, intersectoral collaboration and communities’ inclusion to effectively address and overcome health problems, including diarrhoeal diseases, and ensure access to clean drinking water and enough sanitation.

Access to clean drinking water and enough sanitation is the basic right of every Afghan citizen; therefore, the government of Afghanistan should take the lead in ensuring that the rights of its citizens are met.

Read more from the Afghan consumer diary.

Afghan consumer blog: hundreds burned or killed by unsafe gas-powered cookers

Ahmad Masoud, founder and director of CI member Consumers Rights and Services Organization, documents the state of consumer rights in Afghanistan via his monthly blog. In this latest instalment, he reveals the high cost of unsafe cookers and contaminated fuels.

Blasts caused by low quality gas cylinders, pressure cookers and contaminated fuels are causing burns to thousands of people in Afghanistan every year.

Sources in the Ministry of Public Health say that out of 24,000 burn cases reported last year, 234 people succumbed to their wounds. According to the figures, the majority of the victims are children younger than 14 and women.

Thousands of people use gas cylinders for cooking, lighting and heating purposes as the majority of people in Afghanistan do not have access to electricity.

Afghanistan imports gas cylinders from neighbouring countries and there are various brands of imported and domestically-made pressure cookers available in markets.

Most people cannot afford to buy high-quality pressure cookers or gas cylinders; therefore, they go for the cheaper ones. There have been reports that petrol mixed with diesel has been sold as kerosene which is widely used in kerosene lamp and stoves. It is often the cause of fire.

Early this year, fourteen members of a family suffered severe burns when a gas cylinder exploded inside their
house in the northern part of Kabul City.

Ahmad Farhad, the father of the family, told reporters, “The lives of thousands of people are in danger due to inattention of government and relevant government departments. Lack of control of poor quality gas cylinders and import of low quality fuels has led to such incidents.

"The quality of the imported fuels and gas cylinders, which are imported from the neighbouring countries, should be controlled.”

As the winter is fast approaching and the demand for gas cylinders and fuels is increasing, experts believe that the number of burn cases will rise.

This is of major concern as most people in Afghanistan do not have access to proper medical facilities; therefore, great numbers of people will continue to succumb to their burn wounds.

Afghanistan does not have a proper system to register burn cases in the country; therefore, it is believed that the number of actual cases is much higher than what is being reported.

There is a need for a survey to find out more details about the number of people, especially children and women, who fall victim to gas cylinder and pressure cooker blasts and contaminated fuels each year and the social and economic impact of such incidents and the post-incident lives of the victims.

There is also a profound need for testing the quality of available gas cylinders, pressure cookers and fuels and encouraging the government authorities to ban their import and ask people to stop buying them.

On several occasions, government authorities have promised to control the quality of imported products, but so far they have failed to keep their word.

This failure along with the lack of consumer awareness about health complications due to poor quality commodities is worrying.

Consumers Rights and Services Organization (CRSO), along with a number of public health experts, is calling on the government of Afghanistan to test certain commodities and issue approval certificates to the importers.

CRSO urges the government of Afghanistan to implement strict quality control measures to ensure the safety of its citizens.

More from the Afghan Consumer Diary:

• A country in dire need of consumer protection 

A country in dire need of consumer rights protection

Ahmad Masoud from CI member Consumers Rights and Services Organization calls for urgent consumer protection policy and fair competition in Afghanistan. 

Consumer rights protection and fair trade competition are among the most forgotten issues in Afghanistan.

The majority of consumers in the country are not satisfied with the quality of many products, including medicines, food products, washing powders and liquids, edible oils and ghee, and diesels and patrols.

“Afghanistan has been changed into a dumping center for some of the poorest quality Chinese, Pakistani and Indian goods and products,” says Mohammad Abrar, a capacity building specialist with the World Bank in Afghanistan.

Afghan citizens fall victim to deceptive trade practices and adulterated commodities on a regular basis. And they have little access to redress. Cartels are another problem, often resulting in collusive pricing, division of markets and joint decisions to hold and reduce supply.

Creating a pro-consumer environment

Afghanistan needs to enact consumer rights protection legislation as quickly as possible to help create a pro-consumer environment where the delivery of goods and services leads to consumer satisfaction.

It is generally believed that successful implementation of consumer protection policy and fair competition promotes good governance and strengthens democracy.   

“Business plays a vitally important role in the economic growth of a country by creating more job opportunities, taking the country towards self reliance and alleviating poverty, but the success of a business depends on the consumer’s trust in the quality and safety of the domestic products,” says Abrar.

“Therefore, the domestic products should be of high quality to attract the interest and build the trust of consumers, and the government should enact certain standards for the quality assurance of not only the domestic but also the imported products.” 

Help is on the way

The Afghani government has recently established the Competition Promotion and Consumer Protection General Directorate within the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. 

The directorate has drafted consumer protection legislation and sent it to the Ministry of Justice for revision. After revision by the Justice Ministry, the legislation will be sent to the parliament for ratification.

Jawidullah Azizi, an optical technician in Kabul, says that both businesspeople and consumers need to know their rights and responsibilities in order to create a healthy business environment in the country.

The Consumers Rights and Services Organization (CRSO) has tried to do just that by publishing a series of documents in one of the national Afghan languages on consumers’ rights and responsibilities.

The documents include a booklet on the rights and responsibilities of the consumers; a leaflet on lead poisoning, its causes and preventions; and a flyer marked with eight internationally recognised consumer rights messages. This is the first time such documents have been available in Afghanistan.

Sitting at his small optic shop in one of the busiest parts of Kabul city, Azizi gazes out of his shop’s window and says, “When I look at the current status of some businesses in the market, I strongly believe that Afghanistan is in dire need of consumers’ rights protection.”