Plastic board, juice among top-five export items list

Cardamom export down 60%  in first two months

Kathmandu, Oct. 16

Plastic board and juice have secured their position among the top five exports of Nepal in the first two months of the current Fiscal Year 2024/25 replacing cardamom and readymade garments compared to the same period last year.

According to the statistics prepared by the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) on the basis of the data from the Department of Customs (DoC), which was published on Tuesday, polyester yarn and thread has retained its position as the top exporter of the country for the period of mid-July to mid-September 2024.

Nepal exported yarn and thread worth Rs. 2.012 billion in two months which is 3.9 per cent increase compared to the first two months of 2023/24. However, the growth rate is way down from that of the previous year when the products have witnessed 85.1 per cent rise in the last fiscal. But it has increased its total share in export from 7.7 per cent last year to 8.0 per cent this year.

Woolen carpet has climbed two positions up to be the second largest export this year with 8 per cent share and Rs. 1.99 billion amount. Last year, Nepal exported woolen carpet worth Rs. 1.5 billion. However, that was 120 per cent up compared to FY 2022/23.

Likewise, plastic board is the third largest export worth Rs. 1.51 billion and 6 per cent share in total export. Last year, plastic board was in the seventh position. Zinc sheet and juice are the fourth and fifth largest exports of the country in the first two months of this year although their export has declined by 30.1 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively compared to the previous year.

Last year, export of plastic board was increased by 175.7 per cent while the juice export was dropped by 19.1 per cent.

Other top 10 exports of the two months are tea, readymade garments, jute goods, oil cakes and pashmina. Similarly, cardamom, Ayurvedic medicine, textiles, shoes and sandals, palm oil, noodles, ginger, rosin, herbs and copper wire rod are in the top 20 exports of Nepal. However, the last four products have less than 1 per cent share each in the total exports.

Except for oil cakes, pashmina, Ayurvedic medicine, shoes and sandals, noodles and rosin, export of all other 15 products has gone down. The largest drop (-60.2 per cent) is seen in the exports of cardamom.

In the first two months of the previous year, herbs, handicrafts and brans were also in the top 20 list, according to the NRB report.

Nepal has exported goods worth Rs. 25.09 billion to 94 countries around the globe from mid-July to mid-September this year against the imports of Rs. 262.54 billion from 113 countries. According to the DoC, Nepal’s top five export markets are India, the United States, Germany,  the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. Likewise, top import sources are India, China, Ukraine, Australia and Qatar.

Nepal exported goods worth Rs. 15.98 billion to India, Rs. 3.22 billion to the US, Rs. 871 million to Germany, Rs. 684 million to the UK and Rs. 412 million to the UAE. Among the top 10 export destination countries, Nepal trade balance is positive (by Rs. 34.7 million) only with the UK.

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 17 October 2024.