Carpet industries rue lack of domestic demand

KATHMANDU, July 14: Though Nepali hand-knotted carpet is one of the largest export commodities of the country, carpet manufactures say the domestic demand for hand-knotted carpet is very low. They, however, said the domestic demand has seen a slight rise in recent years as compared to the past years.



Carpet manufacturers say they are getting low demand for Nepali hand-knotted carpets from both national and international market. Despite this, most of the carpet manufacturers have no options but to look for international buyers because of negligible domestic demand. [break]



According to Central Carpet Manufacturers´ Association (CCMA) -- the association of hand-knotted carpet manufacturers in the country, many manufacturing firms and folding their production units due to lack of business doing environment, declining demand from international markets and negligible demand in the domestic market.



Tshering Shrerpa, general secretary of the association, said the demand for locally manufactured hand-knotted in the domestic market is not so encouraging. “Of the total carpet manufacture in the country, less than 0.5 percent is sold in the domestic market,” Sherpa added.



Nepal manufactured a total of 800,000 sq m of hand-knotted carpet in fiscal year 2009/10, according to the association.



“Though the domestic demand is almost negligible, we must say that the demand is growing gradually in the last few years. Of late, upper class people have started preferring Nepali hand-knotted carpet,” Sherpa added.



Tashi Lama of Annapurna Carpet Industries in Attarkhel said the domestic demand for the carpets manufactured by them is nil. “Not only at present, we haven´t received demand from local market ever since we started this business,” Lama said, adding that his manufacturing only 100-knot carpet to export to overseas markets.



Chyangli Sherpa, proprietor of Bauddha-based Chyangli Carpet Udyog, however, said his company was seeing some domestic demand in recent years. “Until a few years ago, there was no demand at all in domestic market. But we are getting some buyers in recent years,” he added.



Sherpa added that people following Buddhism and a handful of upper class people make up the company´s domestic clientele. “But this nominal demand is not enough for the industry to sustain,” he added.



According to the association, about 250 carpet manufacturing industries have closed operation in recent years due to declining international demand, unfavorable business scenario in the country and low domestic demand.

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