Herbs And Peanuts
CONSTANT reference by officials to Nepal
being a rich repository of herbs notwithstanding, the country is losing every year tens of
millions of rupees worth of this invaluable part of fauna through rampant, unchecked
smuggling. The scale of this loss of natural resources and leakage of revenue are
estimated to be massive. Legal exports figures show that some 180 million rupees worth of
herbs are exported from Nepal every year. Behind these figures too stand the stark fact
that Nepal is hardly getting what is due from these known exports. Out of the 180 million
rupees, 130 million rupees comes from exports of raw herbs, and only about 50 million
rupees is earned through exports of processed herbs. The implication is obvious. Nepal
basically gets little from selling raw materials while the importers, the biggest being
India, stand to benefit much more from these imports by processing them for its own
industry or re-exporting the processed herbs.
From what little attention Nepal has paid to herbs
processing, it is plain we don’t care. We neither care about the fact that a colossal
amount of prized herbs is going out illegally through the unregulated border, nor do we
care about making efforts to get the maximum out of the sports through legitimate
channels. More and more banned herbal species are now endangered because they are being
harvested beyond replenishment level. Other species, though on the exportable list, are
fetching only a meagre price compared to what they could if they were processed and
refined. The government, sadly, does not seem to see that the money that herbal exports
can bring to the national exchequer could easily be many times more if Nepal could process
them first before exporting. We do have an agency called Herbs Production and Processing
Company Limited. But guess what is its biggest worry right now at this moment? Expanding
its processing facilities? No. This over-staffed company is presently concerned over how
to arrange enough money to meet the salary cost of its 600 employees following the general
salary raise announced. No further elucidation is needed on this government
undertaking’s status of financial health. To expect it to build further capabilities
in herbal processing would be a joke. Could the concerned ministry officials think over it
and see whether private companies could be encouraged to set up or expand the existing
processing plants? Otherwise, we will continue to get only peanuts for our herbal
resources.
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