DEEPLY troubled as Afghanistan is, the market is "definitely worth being in" and offers "rich pickings", according to Felixstowe-based Seaport Freight managing director Steve Parks.

"It isn't a big market for Seaport, but it's one that the company has been in for years. And I see [the restrictions] lifting because of the infrastructure being put back in," he told London's International Freighting Weekly.

Good agents on the ground are vital too, he said, and Seaport has one in Karachi with a branch in Kabul.

"The other issue is that you have to have correct paperwork in place. We had one consignment that took seven months to sort out. It was horrific - it wasn't the cargo, it was just a case that someone hadn't done the paperwork, and it got stuck in the backlog," said Mr Parks.

"The documentation must be in the right place. Officials have different interpretations of the rules, of course, so you have to have very good people on the spot who can get around that.

"We ship from Felixstowe to Karachi and clear in transit to the border," said Mr Parks. "However, all along the route, freight can be stopped for any reason. There could be huge queues of traffic at the border, because it is shut or customs are overpowered with work, or there might be an ambush, or truck's across the road and you can't get through," he said.

"Sometimes freight does take an awfully long time, but we get it through in the end. If people are shipping goods to Afghanistan, they have to appreciate what is happening there," said Mr Parks.

"We do get irate people saying 'it's been two months, why has my stuff not arrived yet?' But it isn't like moving goods to the US. Problems are severe. Sometimes you are held up for weeks and weeks," he said.

"You have to accept there are going to be problems. You just need to plan things - and even then, plans go awry."

As for the future, when NATO forces pull out, he said: "I don't think it will change in terms of unpredictability."