Highly touted exportable products perform poorly
KATHMANDU, SEP 24 - Honey, tea, coffee and gemstone exports have been slow despite claims by experts that they have huge potential. Out of these four highly touted products, honey and tea are included in Nepal Trade Integration Strategy (NTIS) 2010.
The NTIS has listed products and services with immense export potential and conducted programmes to boost their sales. Trade experts said that coffee and gemstone shipments had been poor despite their great prospects. Experts have cited lack of proper policies, poor quality products, absence of quality testing laboratories and lack of coordination between the government and the private sector as the reasons behind sluggish exports.
Nepal earned Rs 176,000 from honey exports during the first 11 months of the last fiscal year, said the Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC). Shipments amounted to a paltry Rs 21,000 in fiscal 2012-13, a sharp drop from Rs 7.66 million in 2010-11. The issue of pesticides in particular was a huge obstacle to Nepal’s honey exports to the European market.
Meanwhile, Nepal exported Rs 1.8 billion worth of tea in the first eleven months of last fiscal year. In fiscal year 2010-11, its export was worth Rs 1.54 billion. Coffee exports have fallen short of expectations. Nepal exported 240 tonnes of coffee in fiscal 2012-13 of which 90 percent consisted of green beans and the rest semi-processed and roasted products.
“Though the NTIS was a right start, we have failed to take the necessary measures to boost exports,” said Dileep K Adhikary, member of the Export Promotion Committee (EPC) of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI). He added that poor implementation of the NTIS resulted in low exports of potential products.
A survey carried out by the United Nations Development Programme in 2010 revealed that Nepal could produce up to 35,000 tonnes of honey annually. Based on this projected output, the country has the potential to export honey worth Rs 24 billion.
“However, due to lack of proper working guidelines and evaluation system, export earnings have plunged to almost zero,” said EPC Chairperson Anup Bahadur Malla. The tea industry provides 500,000 jobs and tea plantations cover 18,000 hectares, said the EPC. An EPC study shows that coffee farming is being done on 1,600 to 2,100 hectares of land in 17 districts although there is a potential for conducting cultivation on 1.1 million hectare in 42 districts. “The country’s coffee production is much less compared to the escalating demand in the international market,” said Malla. He stressed the need to grow coffee on leasehold land and provide cash incentives to exporters to encourage more farmers to grow coffee and tea.
Adhikary has a set of recommendations for boosting exports of farm products which include securing membership in the European Union and provision of
residue management plan, testing lab facility and revolving fund system along with joint promotional efforts of the government and the private sector.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
