Kathmandu, March 1

Exporters of Nepali yarn to Turkey have been facing hassles for the past few weeks after the Turkish government imposed stricter import provision for Nepali yarn, alleging that Nepali traders were exporting foreign yarn to the European nation under Nepali brand names.

The Turkish government has also initiated the process of slapping anti-dumping duty on Nepali yarn based on aforementioned allegations, according to domestic yarn producers. This has created anxiety among Nepali yarn producers, they said.

Turkey is one of the major export markets for Nepali yarn.

“Nepali traders are finding it hard to export yarn to the Turkish market after Turkish yarn producers misinformed the Turkish authorities that Nepali traders were exporting Chinese yarn under Nepali brand names,” said Sashikanta Agrawal, operator of Reliance Spinning Mill, one of the producers of yarn in the country, adding that the allegations made by Turkish manufacturers were false.

Subsequently, Nepal Yarn Producers Association and the government recently inspected yarn producers across the country. However, the inspection report revealed that Nepali traders and yarn manufacturers had been exporting genuine domestically produced yarn.

Even government officials here claim that allegations levelled by Turkish authorities and traders regarding yarn being exported to Turkey are false.

“We did not find any evidence to support the allegations made by Turkey,” Ravi Shankar Saiju, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, told THT.

Meanwhile, a team comprising officials of MoC, Trade and Export Promotion Centre, Department of Customs and yarn producers is expected to visit Turkey in the near future to discuss the issue with Turkish authorities.

“We asked for a bilateral meeting with the Turkish government to sort out the issue. The Turkish government is yet to respond to our request for a meeting,” said Saiju.

There are four producers of yarn in the country and they jointly produce almost 40,000 metric tonnes of yarn every year. Annually, the country exports more than 80 per cent of locally produced yarn to several countries that amounts to almost Rs 15 billion.

According to Saiju, Nepali yarn amounting to almost Rs 7 billion is exported to Turkey every year.