The Indian Pakistani conflict claims an unlikely victim: I asked the pink hemalayas Business and economics

Over the past three decades, Viban Kumar has imported pink salt in the Himalayas of Pakistan for sale in India.

However, New Delhi banned the import of all Pakistani commodities, including those directed across the third countries, after the killing of 26 people, most of them are Indian tourists, in Bahajam in the Indian director Kashmir in April. Kumar, the 50 -year -old merchant in Amritsar in Punjab, the spiritual axis of Sikhs in India, told Al -Jazeera that the embargo had stopped his work.

Kumar says he usually sells from 2000 to 2500 tons of pink salt every quarter. “The profit margin is very slim, but it is still, work is possible because of wholesale sales. But the ban has completely stopped pink salt. We do not know when the situation will turn into normal,” he said to the island of the island.

Pink salt in Himalayas has a pink dye due to an effect of minerals, including iron, and is used in cooking, decorative lamps and spa treatments. Hindus is also preferred to use this salt during their religious fasting because it is non -marine salt.

Mining in Pakistan

Pink salt is extracted in Himalayas at the Khura Salt mine in Punjab County, Pakistan, the second largest salt mine in the world after the Civto Salt mine in Ontario, Canada. Khewra is about 250 km (155 miles) from the city of Lahore, which sometimes gives its name to the pink salt – Lahori Namak, which is the Indian of the salt.

The salt mine contains about 82 million metric tons of salt, and 0.36 million metric tons are extracted each year. About 70 percent of salt is used for industrial purposes, and the rest is dedicated to eating use.

“The mine has very stunning views and attracts several thousand tourists every year,” Fahd Ali, a journalist who lives near the mine, told Al -Jazeera.

He said it contains approximately 30 salt processing units, where huge rock salt rocks are placed and loaded on trucks before sending them.

Salt is exported in raw form to India, where importers are treated and they are grinding for sale.

Prices are swollen

India mostly depends on Pakistan for this pink salt.

But after Paalgam’s killings, India announced the end of all trade with Pakistan, which retracted the ban. This stopping in trade was one of a series of diplomatic and economic measures against, which was taken by the neighbors against each other before an intensive exchange of four days of missiles and drones, which transferred the two countries to the threshold of a full war.

On May 10, they retracted the edge of the abyss, and agreed on the armistice. However, the trade ban is still in place.

Indian salt traders told Al -Jazeera that the current stoppage in imports began to hinder their business with the start of prices.

“More than a month has passed since the announcement of the ban, and prices have already increased,” said Gorfin Singh, a trader based in Amritsar, who blamed traders in the current stocks for selling at higher prices.

Singh said: “The salt, which was sold in the retail market for 45 rupees to 50 rupees per kilogram ($ 0.53 to $ 0.58) before selling the ban now for at least 60 rupees per kilogram ($ 0.70),” said Singh.

In some places, the price is higher. In Kolkata this week, Pink Salt was sold in markets between 70 and 80 rupees per kilogram ($ 0.82 to $ 0.93).

“We have no idea when the situation will return to normal. There will be a complete crisis once the stocks are exhausted,” he said.

However, rates rise more on the other side of India, in the east, due to the cost of moving salt from Amritsar.

Merchants in Kolka Al-Jazeera told the prices of salt that the prices of salt increased by 15-20 percent in the city, but that has not yet hindered the demand.

“The Himalayas Rock salt is still a great demand throughout the year, especially during festivals when people remain in fasting and prefer pink salt over the marine salt that is produced in India,” said Sanjay Agarawal, a manager of a private company that deals with pink salt.

The government should search for an alternative country to buy this salt. “The relations between the two countries are usually tense, and this affects trade. Our government must search for alternative countries to buy salt so that the supply chain is not disabled.”

However, Pakistani exporters said that the Indian ban will have a “positive effect” on their trade. They said that Indian merchants describe their salt as selling them in the international market at higher prices.

“The last ban will help us expand the expansion because it will wipe the competition from India,” Vizan Banojani, General Manager of Operations at Karachi, told Al Jazerera.

He said: “There is no doubt that India is a large market and has a lot of capabilities, but we want to send salt by doing the added value and not in raw form. Salt has already a great demand in the world.”

Retreat

Trade between the two countries has been decreasing since the 2019 attack on the security forces in Polama, in Kashmir by the Indian, where 40 security personnel have been killed. In response, India canceled the state of non-discriminatory market-known as the most preferred situation for the nation (MFN)-has been granted to Pakistan, which guaranteed equal treatment between commercial partners. It also imposed a 200 percent heavy tariff on imports from Pakistan.

According to the Indian Ministry of Trade, the country’s exports to Pakistan from April 2024 to January 2025 reached 447.7 million dollars, while Pakistan’s exports to India during the same period were $ 420,000.

In 2024, India imported about 642 metric tons of pink salt, which was much less than 74,457 metric tons imported in 2018 – to a large extent as a result of high tariffs.

Before the last ban, the main exports in India included cotton, organic chemicals, spices, food products, pharmaceutical preparations, plastic articles and dairy products. India usually imports copper articles, raw cotton, fruits, salt, minerals and some specialized chemicals from Pakistan.

“The implementation of the hard service has raised the price of importing salt from 3.50 rupees (0.041 dollars) per kilogram to 24.50 rupees ($ 0.29) per kilogram in 2019, although salt was directed from the third country like Dubai,” said the merchant Kumar Al Jazeera.

He said: “However, this did not affect our work because the demand was very high, and buyers were ready to pay the price. But the government, this time, also banned the entry of Pakistani goods from any third country, which led to the full offer.”

One of the unusual industries that is hurt by the ban is the lamps made of pink rock salt in Himalayas, which are used as decorative lights and even not proven allegations that they are air purification devices.

“We have to search for an alternative country if the rock salt supply does not come from Pakistan,” said the founder of Global Aroma Deep, who uses one name. “The price of lamps has already increased after a 200 percent tariff in 2019, and purchases from any other country will lead to further cost escalation.”