KATHMANDU, JUN 25 - The government is preparing to sign an agreement with China, which will enable Nepal to export oranges to Tibet.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Development will sign the pact during the third Nepal-China’s Tibet Trade Facilitation Committee (NTTFC) meeting scheduled for the first week of July in Lhasa.
Officials from the ministry and Department of Agriculture will accompany the government delegation at the meeting for negotiations on the agreement.
In the initial phase, the government targets to export oranges from Syangja and Sindhuli based on the World Trade Organisation (WTO)-set norms. Tibet has been expressing interest to buy Nepali oranges as it has stopped importing the citrus fruit from South Africa, according to the National Plant Quarantine Programme (NPQP).
“We have a target to export 100 tonnes of sweet orange and 1,000 tonnes of orange in the initial phase,” said Ishwor Rijal, programme chief at NPQP. He said the fruits will be exported after grade separation of quality and quarantine certification.
In terms of production, Syanja tops the list of 68 orange producing districts. It produced 11,571 tonnes of the fruits last fiscal year. Similarly, Sindhuli is the largest sweet orange producing district.
The government is also exploring possibilities to export other citrus fruits in future to the northern neighbour. Nepal has asked Tibet to furnish its tentative demand for the fruits.
Despite high export potential, Nepal has not been able to reap optimum benefits due to poor infrastructure for storage and quarantine. Rijal said the private sector should invest in setting up cold storage as there was huge export potential of seasonal fruits.
Export of citrus fruits to Tibet is one of the components of the third meeting of the NTTFC. Naindra Prasad Upadhyay, joint secretary at the Commerce Ministry, said they were finalising agendas for the NTTFC meeting. Prior to giving the final shape to the agendas, the Commerce Ministry will consult with Prime Minister Babaram Bhattarai, who is arriving from the Rio+ 20 Summit Sunday.
The primary objective of the meeting is to simplify the tariff and transit problems, said the Commerce Ministry.
The second NTTFC meeting held in May last year in Kathmandu had agreed to remove procedural hurdles in the enforcement of zero-tariff and to activate local-level working groups to eliminate non-customs barriers.
Source: http://www.ekantipur.com/2012/06/25/business/govt-to-sign-orange-pact-with-china/356133/
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