The entrepreneurs came up with the plan amid rising complaints about the quality of wool imported from China-- the key supplier of wool to Nepal. [break]
"The proposed cooperative would not only end the problem of inferior quality in wool--the raw material for pashmina, the price would also go down with bulk purchases from the cooperative," Mandu Babu Adhikari, chief program officer at Nepal Pashmina Industries Association (NPIA), told Republica.
With the establishment of the cooperative, NPIA would import quality wool on behalf of member entrepreneurs after carrying out quality testing and setting up linkages with genuine suppliers in the northern neighbor.
Members of NPIA who are producing Nepali Chyangra (mountain goat) Pashmina have been importing over 200 tons of wool from China, Hong Kong, Israel, India and Italy annually.
However, the quality of wool imported from China has been questioned from time to time in the absence of institutional imports by Nepali entrepreneurs. Of the total requirement of 250 tons annually, hardly 40-50 tons is produced by domestic farmers. The price of wool for pashmina hovers between Rs 12,000 and Rs 18,000 per kg, depending on the quality of the wool.
Around Rs 20 million will be mobilized by the cooperative as seed money to import the wool.
"Given the nominal production of domestic wool despite the high potential, we are incorporating local farmers in some Himalayan districts that have high potential for the production of mountain goats, the source of wool for pashmina," said Pushpa Man Shrestha, president of NPIA.
With the establishment of the cooperative to ensure a market for locally produced wool, local farmers will get a higher price for their wool.
Under the pashmina cooperative, NPIA plans to initiate the rearing of Himalayan goats through local farmers´ cooperatives in Manang, Mustang and Dolpa, the key Chyangra wool-producing districts. According to a study conducted a few years back by the International Trade Center (ITC), Mustang alone had around 500,000 mountain goats.
Adhikari of NPIA also said a joint team from NPIA, Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC) and the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM) would leave for those districts next month to organize local farmers for rearing of mountain goats, setting up local cooperatives and providing them necessary support.
According to the Trade and Export Promotion Center (TEPC), imports of wool more than tripled to Rs 674 million´s worth during fiscal year 2009/10 compared to Rs 219.4 million the previous year. However, entrepreneurs claim that the annual import stands at over Rs 1 billion.
"It shows that we are increasingly dependent on imports due to growing demand and declining domestic production," said Adhikari. Nepali Chyangra pashmina has been regularly exported to over 40 countries.
prabhakarji@gmail.com
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