KATHMANDU, May 17: The government has claimed that there will be no shortage of sugar in the domestic market due to adequate stock of the essential with the state mechanism despite India’s imposed export ban.
Issuing a press release, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS) has stated that the country now has sufficient sugar stock to meet the domestic demand for the next eight months. “In a meeting with the stakeholders including the traders and sugar producers, they have reaffirmed to maintain easy and regular sugar supply amid India’s restriction measure,” said the MoICS.
Publishing a decision in the government’s gazette on Wednesday, India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade announced a ban on sugar till September 30. Citing the low production in the main harvesting season of sugarcane, the Indian authorities are reported to have taken the decision.
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With the recent move of the Indian government, Nepali market is likely to face a short supply of sugar, which is expected to take the market price of the sweetener upward. Having low domestic production capacity, Nepal largely relies on imports from India to meet the local demand of sugar.
As per the government records, Nepal’s sugar production has declined to Rs 120,000 tons from 155,000 tons annually, due to a massive fall in production of its raw material sugarcane. The yearly demand is 270,000 tons as the per capita consumption stands at 4-6 kgs.
While Nepal’s average monthly sugar requirement records between 20,000 and 25,000 tonnes, demand spikes to around 30,000 tonnes during the peak of major festivals like Dashain, Tihar and Chhath.
As stated in the MoICS press release, the sugar produced and stored by the private sectors operated sugar industries, and the government entities like Food Management and Trading Company Limited and Salt Trading Corporation Limited currently have a stock of sugar to meet the demand for eight months. Based on the production and stock volume, the ministry has made it clear that there will be no shortage of sugar for the time being.
In addition, the MoICS has pledged to make market monitoring, supply management and institutional coordinations more effective to prevent artificial shortages, black marketing, unfair stockpiling and unnatural price hikes in the market. Similarly, the ministry has informed that it is making multifaceted efforts to increase the competitive capacity of sugar production to achieve self-reliance in the agricultural product in the long term.
The ministry has further requested the public not to stockpile sugar unnecessarily as such a move could adversely affect the supply chain across the country.
