Nepal’s export increased conspicuously in the fiscal year (FY) 2020/21.

 The annual Foreign Trade Statistics (FTS) released by the Department of Custom revealed that the export rose by 44.43 per cent in the fiscal year (FY) 2020/21 compared to the previous FY.

Export amount of soybean oil accounted for almost 30 per cent of the total export in the last FY.

The sharp acceleration of export in comparison to the previous FY

The change in the value of the export from FY 2019/20 to FY 2020/21 is quite larger in comparison to the change from 2018/19 to 2019/20.

The FTS revealed that export rose by 44.43 per cent from FY 2019/20 to FY 2020/21. The export recorded by FTS stood at Rs. 141.1 billion in FY 2020/21 up from Rs 97. 7 billion of the FY 2019/20.

However, the export had changed merely by 0.62 per cent from FY 2018/19 to 2019/20. The FTS showed that in the FY 2019/20 the value of the export was Rs. 97.7 billion up from Rs 97.1 billion in FY 2018/19.

Impressive growth pushed by Soybean Oil

The rise is boosted up especially by the export of soybean oil. The export of soybean oil soared by 318.1 per cent in the first 11 months of the FY 2020/21. The FTS records show the amount of soybean oil export was Rs. 42.3 billion in the FY 2020/21 in the 11 months while it was just Rs 10.1 billion in the FY 2019/20. Subsequently, the unspeculative growth created a ruckus beyond the border, in India.

Nepalese soybean seems to be provoking Indian traders. They have been alleging Nepal of importing the crude soybean from other countries and exporting refined oil in India at zero duty.

However, the spokesperson of the Department of Customs, Shishir Ghimire, clarified that Nepal has strictly followed the 30 percent value addition by refineries to export at zero tariff privilege provided to the least developed country– if the raw material is imported from another country.

In addition to it, he added that a significant increase in the export of tea, cardamom, synthetic year, are the other major factors for the increase in export for the FY 2020/21.

Source : TRN,