Govt plans to enact GMP on food industries

By Sameer Ghimire

KATHMANDU, Dec 30 : In order to ensure quality production of foodstuffs, Food Technology and Quality Control Department is all set to enact Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) regulations on the food industries of the country. After the enactment of GMP regulations, the existing government practice of examining the standard of the final product will end and the concerned authorities will have to examine the foodstuff during the manufacturing process itself.

The department has already proposed the government to amend existing Food Act 1967 by incorporating GMP regulations in it, and is busy preparing a draft for the proposed amendment.

"We are in the preliminary state of preparing a draft of GMP regulations to submit to the government," Dr. Tika Bahadur Karki, Director General of the department, said.

Despite the absence of GMP in the Act presently, the department has been strictly imposing such regulation to the dairy industries of the country. The department had imposed GMP to dairy industries after a number of complaints regarding the quality of milk were filed.

However, the department has decided to impose GMP regulations in oil and biscuits industries on experimental basis before making final recommendations to the government. "We want to experiment the imposition of GMP in some selected industries before making final suggestions to the government," added Karki.

With the aim to ensure effective implementation of the GMP regulation, the department is also preparing different GMP guidelines for different food producing industries, and concerned officials of the department informed that the guidelines would be finalised soon.

Nonetheless, besides oil and biscuits industries, the department would also encourage other food industries to follow GMP guidelines, even before it is made legally obligatory. "We will also be requesting the entire food industry of the country to maintain GMP guidelines," Karki added.

At the same time, Karki also expressed his optimism that the adoption of the GMP regulations would help the domestic food industries to enhance their competitiveness in the international market. "Export of our edible products could go up if the food industries sincerely maintain the prescribed standard while manufacturing their products," he added.

Tourism experienced a bleak year

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Dec 30 : Despite some solace from international media that honoured Nepal as one of the few outbound destinations with exotic natural beauties, the year 2002 proved to be one of the most painful years for Nepali tourism industry.

Two international airlines cancelled services to Nepal, significant number of tourism dependants turned jobless, total tourist arrival hit rock-bottom and, more bad news for tourism – no results from the promotion effort through Destination Nepal Campaign till date.

Even Nepal’s entry to the Chinese list of outbound destinations, could not bail out the country from the tourism crisis. The number of Chinese tourists increased to some extent, but not significantly enough, due to limited air transport and bureaucratic hassles.

The bad news in tourism sector, however, was neither unexpected nor sudden. The sector had enough warnings of another difficult year from both domestic and international indications - the clamping of emergency inside the country from the beginning of the year and the terrorist attack of September 11 last year.

The international incident added to the woes that began with the hijacking episode of Indian Airlines three years back. Total tourist incoming, during the year 2002 never came close to 2001 tourist figures, even when 2001 was one of the worst years affected by the Royal carnage of June 1 and the infamous Hritik Roshan incident.

The government, with an aim to come up with new measures to boost the ailing tourism sector, announced the celebration of two-year Destination Nepal Campaign in 2002-2003. But the government’s inadequate homework led to the delay in ‘real’ launching of the programme, only in July 2002.

Not only that the programme was announced on a shaky foundation, but the allocated budget was also not enough, - a case of too little money chasing too many programmes. The government earmarked, a meagre Rs 28 million for spending under the DNC banner for the current fiscal year.

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), with limited budgets attempted to promote Nepal in the international arena, but was result-less. NTB participated in a handful of international trade fairs and invited international media-persons from major tourism-generating markets. However, all efforts of the NTB proved useless.

As a consolation to the ailing industry, Nepal was voted second favourite long-haul travel destination, next to New Zealand, in a readership poll carried out by UK-based newspapers-Observer and Guardian.

In a similar survey last year, Wanderlust Publications, a UK-based travel magazine had ranked Nepal as second in Top Country Category out of 180 countries. The ranking was based on the survey of respondents that visited 180 countries, 557 cities, 342 airlines and over 500 tour operators.

In one of the greatest disappointments, Singapore Airlines withdrew its Kathmandu flights from June stating that it could not meet operational costs due to heavy decline in passengers. Pakistan International Airline, which was forced to suspend its flights to Kathmandu owing to increasing Indo-Pak tension, never re-entered Nepali skies.

Though final figures are yet to come, the tourist arrival is sure to hit rock-bottom, even below last year’s records. The tourist arrival, the experts say would record some two-third of last year’s arrivals.

It is not the increasing international or the regional problems that has affected the Nepali tourism sector, but it is the domestic Maoists insurgency that is dragging the sector – a major forex earner – to its worst ever days.

As several experts say, the future of tourism sector, like other sectors of economy, will depend much on where the Maoists problem goes. Without a solution to this problem, even an announcement of World Travel and Tourism Council – ‘short destinations tourism would recover from by March 2003 and the long haul tourism by 2004’ – will not work for Nepal.

Paddy production, price surge

Post Report

BARDIYA, Dec 30 : Paddy production has surged in the later part of the year in this district, accompanied by a corresponding price rise. The district is hailed suitable for paddy farming and is sometimes regarded as the storehouse for paddy production.

The farmers were quite worried in the beginning of the farming season due to delayed rains. Consequently, a massive downturn in the paddy production was anticipated. But the result has been quite the opposite. According to the District Agriculture Office, the productivity has surged by 0.25 percent per hectare, as compared to that of the previous years.

Last year, about 123 thousand metric tons of paddy was produced. The figure has gone up to 133 tons this year, according to Rajeshwor Yadav, Assistant Crop Development Officer at the Office.

Along with the rise in production, the price of paddy has also gone up, followed by a decline in the productivity in other parts of the country. The thick-grain rice is sold at about Rs. 850 per quintal and the thin-grain rice is sold as high as Rs. 1050 per quintal. The respective prices in the previous years were about Rs. 550 and Rs. 700 per quintal.

This year, the paddy farming was started quite late, in the months of September and October, as there was no rain here till then. Generally, the paddy cultivation is carried out in the months of June or July. Deprived of irrigation facilities, the farmers have no choice than to rely on the rainwater.

Gold price soars to over six-year high

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Dec 30 : Buoyed by the continuing rise of gold price in the international market, the price of gold in the domestic market soared to Rs 8,800 per ten gram on Monday, which is a record high price in the last six and half years.

The price of gold on Monday jumped by Rs 95 per ten gram as compared to its price on Friday, according to price figure issued by Nepal Gold-Silver Dealers Association (NGSDA).

Despite a slump in demand, largely due to a decline in the income and expenditure capacity that has been dragged down by the sluggish economic condition, domestic price of the gold has been soaring in recent times. It had gone up to touch Rs 8,575 on Dec 17, which was the highest price in last six years.

The highest price of the gold recorded in the country was Rs 9,045 per ten gram, which was registered in September 1995.

"The latest increment in the price of gold in the domestic market is due to the rise of the same in the international market," said Tej Ratna Shakya, President of the NGSDA talking to The Kathmandu Post.

The international gold price soared by US$ 3 per troy ounce during the weekend to reach US$ 350 per troy ounce. Such a sharp rise in the international price of gold has been largely attributed to rising US-Iraq tension and the US-North Korea nuclear tussle.

Moreover, the shifting of the investors towards gold after the dollar started to fall against major international currencies including Euro and Japanese yen too was one of the major reasons behind the hike in international prices of gold.

As usual, the declining trend in the share markets across the globe has also been attributed for the current rises in gold price. As speculative investors usually reshuffle their portfolio between gold and the share market, these exhibit a negative and opposite relationship.

The latest changes seen in the consumption pattern of Europeans, whereby they preferred to invest on gold as an inventory in the crises and are currently in a gold rush due to ongoing war tensions, has also turned out as the major factor leading to its price rise.

On the other hand, interestingly, the retail consumption of the gold has slid in the international market. "Despite being the festive season when the people buy more ornaments and other gold items, the retail consumption of gold has slid by 30 per cent in recent times," said gold market experts.

In the Nepali market, the retail consumption has slid in recent month. Decline in sources of income and constricted expenditure capacity of the aspirant consumers is the major reason behind the latest gloom in the domestic gold sale, said gold entrepreneurs.

The entrepreneurs anticipate the price shooting further in days ahead. "The tensions seen in the international arena is likely to provide momentum to soaring price of the gold," said Shakya.