Pratikshya Kandel

January 9: Data shows that Nepal spends more than Rs 2 billion annually for importing dairy products. The records of the Department of Customs in the last five years show that Nepal has been spending at least Rs 1.80 billion to 2.60 billion for the import of dairy products each year. 

Although the government has announced to make the country self-sufficient in dairy products, imports are increasing instead of decreasing. Dairy products worth more than Rs 1 billion have been imported into Nepal in the first five months of the current fiscal year. In these five months, Rs 1.6 billion has gone out for the import of 2.48 million litres of dairy products. This is 18 per cent more than the same period last year. From mid-July to mid-December last year, Rs 90.21 million was spent for the import of 1.92 million litres of dairy products.

According to the data of the Department of Customs, Nepal imported skimmed milk, processed milk, butter, cream, cheese and other milk products during the review period. Out of the imported items, the highest amount of milk products imported was baby milk worth Rs 2888 million, baby food made from milk worth Rs 2111 million, powdered milk worth Rs 1759 million and cheese worth Rs 1241 million.

Nepal imports dairy products mainly from India, Germany, South Korea, Denmark, the UK, America, Belgium, China, Japan, Qatar and other countries. The data from the Department of Customs show that Nepal has imported dairy products worth more than Rs 11.84 billion in the last five and a half years.

Raj Kumar Dahal, president of the Dairy Industry Association, said that the import of dairy products is increasing as domestic production is not sufficient to meet the demand. 

"There is still a shortage of 3,000 metric tons of milk in our market. Our domestic production is only 24,000 metric tons,'' he told Ne Business Age, “The amount of milk we need is 27,000 to 28,000 metric tons.” 

Dahal said that since it is the milk production season, and should be the time to stock milk, domestic production is not enough to meet the demand.

"Now, if 200,000 to 300,000 litres of extra milk were available, converting it would be enough to meet the demand for three to four months," Dahal said, adding, "But now, during the peak season of stocking milk, not even 50 litres are left daily."

He said that even though domestically produced milk is exported abroad, milk is not available to meet the domestic demand. According to the Department of Customs, Nepal exports food made from milk for dogs and cats, including Churpi (hardened cheese), worth Rs 3 billion annually. 

Dahal said that more than 30 million litres of milk are consumed for preparing hardened cheese. Last year, 1,744,500 kgs of dog and cat food were exported from Nepal fetching Rs 2.92 billion of foreign currency through export. The average price of hardened cheese was Rs 1,670 per kg. Even in the five months of the current fiscal year, a total of 594,000 kilos of dog and cat food worth Rs 1.1 billion has been exported from Nepal. Its average price is around Rs 1,900 per kg.