KATHMANDU: Folks with a sweet tooth face an increase in sweets’ price. The scarcity of sugar has driven well-known sweetshops to increase their prices.

“We have an inventory for a crisis situation. We are procuring sugar from National Trading Corporation, but have had to hike the prices of sweets due to the increase in price of sugar,” said Patan Dhoka-based Anmol Sweets’ director Aditya Sharma. He added that prices have been hiked only marginally to counter the rise of sugar prices.

Angan, another well known sweetshop in

the valley, is feeling the blow of sugar prices and its unavailability, “If this continues, we will have

to hike the prices of sweets,” said Angan manager Anil Gupta.

Though sweetshops in the valley revise prices annually, the ever-increasing issue of sugar is causing an imbalance in the prices.

“Initially, customers will be affected but eventually they will also have to understand that we are not raising prices because of our own whims or fancy. We have to stay in tune with the market situation to sustain ourselves,” added Gupta.

Customer flow has not yet deteriorated, said Sharma. “We haven’t encountered any problems as far as customer satisfaction is concerned. In keeping with the market trend we are left with no choice but to hike prices. If the price and flow of sugar is constant our prices will also stabilize.”