TAPLEJUNG, March 17: Chiraito, a highly prized medicinal herb found in the mountainous region, is being increasingly exported to Tibet as it fetches better price there than in the domestic markets.
Loads of chiraito are stored in Olangchung Gola border for exports. Normally, the stocks would have been cleared by this time of the year. However, heavy snowfall in recent months in the district hampered the trade, which has beginning to resume recently after the weather cleared.
Conflict with the north
According to Dawa Norbu Lama, a local trader, Tibet is currently the most attractive market for chiraito. They get better rates for chiraito in Tibet than the domestic and Indian markets.
Chiraito is traded for Rs 15,000 per bundle in the district headquarters, while the same quantity can be sold for Rs 17,000 and Rs 23,000 in Birtamod of Jhapa and Olangchung Gola, respectively. Similarly, the quantity is sold for Rs 20,000 in Indian market while it fetches Rs 27,000 in Tibet. According to local traders, the price for chiraito in Tibet has risen by Rs 2,000 as they were selling it for Rs 20,000 last year.
Traders also say that they have to pay more to transport the herb to Birtamod then to the Tibetan markets due to which they find the Tibetan market more convenient.
“Traders like me from the district headquarters are only able to buy few quantities of chiraito this year,” said trader Khadka Bahadur Moktan, who is also chairman of Cardamom Entrepreneur Association. “It is grown in higher places and the people of those places are selling it in Tibet rather than in the domestic market,” said Moktan.
Meanwhile, Tseten Sherpa, a trader from Olangchung Gola, confirmed that they are focusing more on Tibetan markets than the domestic this year. “We have exported chiraito in lesser quantity this year than before. The demand for chiraito from Tibet was much higher this year,” she said.
According to her, it is more expensive to send the herb to district headquarters than exporting it to Tibet.
Tseten further added that they were discouraged to trade in the domestic markets because they have to pay Rs 1000 per bundle in tax. However, they don’t have to pay any taxes while exporting it to Tibet.
