Kathmandu, October 11

As a part of Nepal Trade Integration Strategy (NTIS) — the government’s strategy to boost the export of products that have niche market advantage — the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) has prepared export strategy of four products, namely, large cardamom, handmade paper, tea and coffee with an aim to improve the value chain of these products from production to export market.

Export strategy of the aforesaid products has given emphasis to the value addition of the products, labelling, packaging as per the requirement of the buyers, as well as branding of the products and registration of trademark in the export destination and potential export destinations, according to MoC officials.

The export strategy envisions diversifying export market and value addition to reap benefits from the products with competitive and comparative advantages. Branding, marketing and product design have been given high priority to boost export. “Branding and trademark registration are critical to secure the market of Nepali products in export destinations,” said Toya Narayan Gyawali, joint secretary of the MoC.

The MoC has prepared the export strategy of these products in support of United Nations International Trade Centre (ITC), which is currently working in the branding and promotion of Nepali pashmina products in international market under support of Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) — a multi-donor programme to support trade-related capacity development of least developed countries.

As per MoC, the export strategy will be launched in the presence of Executive Director of ITC, Arancha González on Friday.

As Nepal has received the support of EIF for productive capacity development of some products like ginger, pashmina and medicinal and aromatic plants, the government aims to mobilise support of other development partners for execution of export strategy of the aforementioned products, according to officials.

As per officials, currently large cardamom is being exported to India without much value addition. However, Middle East has also been identified as a potential export destination of large cardamom, which is used as spices and also has medicinal value. Nepal’s annual production of large cardamom is 6,500 tonnes.

Likewise, the country produces 434 tonnes of coffee every year and South Korea, Japan, China and Germany are the major export destinations for Nepali coffee.

Similarly, Nepali tea is also popular in the global market and the country’s annual export of tea is around $6 million.

Handmade paper, which is being exported to more than 15 countries, including United Kingdom, USA, Japan, Republic of Korea, Spain, UAE, Poland, Malaysia, Switzerland, France, among others, has potential of value addition and could be exported to other markets as well.