September 1: Readymade garment producers of Nepal are forced to pay four times high price for air tickets to export their products due to unavailability of flights amid Covid-19 pandemic. Regular flights have been halted since a long time to prevent the spread of coronavirus. So the exporters have no option to send the products through chartered flights operated for rescuing stranded Nepali citizens, which is much more costlier.

Readymade garments produced in Nepal are exported to countries like Germany, France, Hungary, Denmark, Italy, Norway as well as the USA, Australia and Canada. Europe is a major market for readymade garments made  in Nepal. Out of the total readymade garments manufactured in Nepal, 70 percent is exported to Europe.

The demand for readymade garments depends on the season. Therefore, the Nepali exporters say they have had to bear losses of more than Rs 1.25 billion for failing to deliver the goods on time.

The manufacturers have to incur huge losses if they have to keep the products for the next season.

Therefore, the manufacturers are exporting products like shorts, trousers, pants and ladies wear to selected European countries by paying exceptionally high airfare, informed Ashok Agrawal, general secretary of Garment Association of Nepal.

He added that they have no option other than to pay four times higher to export the goods through chartered flights.

Earlier, Nepali exporters had been exporting goods for 2 dollar per kilogram. But the cost has gone up to 8 dollars per kg at present.

“It is better to pay high price than to face loss due to delay in delivery, which often causes irreparable damage because the season gets over by that time,” says Agrawal.

According to the association, there were 1200 garment factories in Nepal which provided employment to more than 100,000 people about 15 years ago. However, there are currently only 50 such factories across the country and they provide employment to 8,000 people.

The garment industry of Nepal had done transactions worth Rs 7 billion during last fiscal year, but the association fears that the figure might take a nosedive this  year.

The garment industries are operating at 20 percent capacity after the lockdown was imposed on March 24. On top of that, they are struggling to export the manufactured products.