In previous years, sweets business will pick up two to three days prior to the festival, but this year the pre-festival sale has dropped by over 50 percent and we believe the sale will not improve much, said Prembahadur Shrestha, proprietor of Bimal Sweets and Chat House at Bagbazar. [break]
Afraid of declining consumer interest in sweets, the store, which in in the business for last 20 years, said it has heavily reduced its production this year.
“We used to prepare almost 40 to 50 varieties of sweets during Tihar but this year we have limited our production to only 20 to 30 items,” Shrestha told Republica adding that the business has dropped by more than 50 percent this year.
Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC) said many shops are still selling adulterated sweets with high presence of chemical colors and has advised people to avoid sweets during Tihar as well.
Pramod Koirala, spokesperson of DFTQC, said the sample test of sweets collected from the valley revealed presence of starch and chemical colors up to unacceptable levels.
“Sweets shops are still keeping their kitchen dirty and have unhygienic storage system. They are using inferior quality raw materials such as milk, edible oil and ghee,” Koirala told Republica.
Pramod Sharma, a supervisor at Sajangoth Sweet Shop at Tripureshwor, said the daily transaction at the store has declined by almost 50 percent during the festive season. The store, which recorded a daily transaction of Rs 250,000 during the festive season, is registering sales worth Rs 150,000 only.
“The sale of adulterated sweets by some malicious businessmen has very badly affected our business,” he stated. The sweets market is experiencing low sales after market inspections exposed bacteria and other contamination at hazardous levels in the products of renowned sweets stores in the valley.
Sweets shops in the valley have however introduced gifts on the purchaser of sweets that include dry fruits and sweets worth Rs 300 to Rs 3,000 to attract more customers in a season when customers are mostly staying away from sweet shops.
Sweets such as barfi, peda, lalmohan and rasbari are more popular confections during the festival.
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