A government delegation led by Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS), Ravi Shanker Sainju, left for Turkey today to discuss the hassles being faced by the exporters of yarn.

Textile experts from the ministry, and under secretaries from MoICS and Ministry of Foreign Affairs are part of the delegation, which will hold discussions with high-ranking officials of Ministry of Customs and Trade of Turkish government.

Turkey is a major export destination for Nepali yarn. However, the government of Turkey has imposed an anti-dumping duty on Nepali yarn citing that Chinese yarn is being exported to Turkey in the guise of Nepali brands. The government delegation will try to convince the Turkish officials that the allegation is untrue and resolve the current hassles.

Nepali traders have been exporting yarn produced by Nepali spinning mills.

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 Turkey, India and several countries worth almost Rs 15 billion.

Export earnings of yarn from Turkey account for almost half of annual earning. This means, Nepali yarn amounting to almost Rs seven billion is exported to Turkey yearly.