Price of sesame seeds soars
The quadrupling of the price of sesame seeds has been caused by the acute shortage of the seeds in the market. Jagadish Yadav, a trader in Narayanghat, says that retail stores have very little stock of sesame seeds right now because fresh batches have stopped arriving from farmers in this dry season.
Yadav says that sesame seeds are selling for Rs 240 per kg, up from the Rs 65 per kg of one-and-a-half months ago. And the shortage that drove up the prices looks to get even more acute. "The remaining stocks of sesame seeds are being sold to farmers for the coming plantation season," says Yadav.
It´s not surprising that there is a sesame-seed shortage today. Kamala Neupane, an agriculture technician at the District Agriculture Development Office in Chitwan, says shortages of sesame seeds had been deepening over the past few years because production volumes were shrinking in the district.
Chitwan, the major district that produces and supplies sesame seeds, has witnessed dropoffs because farmers are increasingly shifting to rearing other high-yield crops.
Sesame is widely used to prepare pickle as well as for various religious rituals by Hindus.
Price of most of dry fruits goes up
Traders say that the price of raisins has gone up to 190 per kg, from Rs 140 over the last one-and-a-half months. Most of the raisins available in Nepal are imported from China. Singaporean betel nut is selling for Rs 150 per kg, up from 130 per kg a month earlier. However, Thai betel nuts have become cheaper by Rs 5. They now cost Rs 90 a kg.
The price of cardamom rose to Rs 1,050, from Rs 1,050 per kg. Black cardamom and peanuts have also become dearer over the period; they cost Rs 260 per kg and Rs 85 per kg, from Rs 225 per kg and Rs 80 per kg a month earlier.
Ravi Kumar Gupta, a trader at Makhan dry fruits market, says the rising price of dry fruit items in source countries drove up prices in the Nepali market. Raisins are sourced from China, whereas cardamom is imported from Guatemala and the USA. Similarly, other items such as black cardamom, betel nut, cumin, peanuts and coriander are imported from India.
Spices save the day
Consumers are in for a smidgen of good news, though. The major spices have all become a bit cheaper. Traders say the prices of cumin and coriander, widely used spices in Nepal, declined to Rs 225 per kg and Rs 95 per kg, from Rs 250 per kg and Rs 110 per kg, respectively.
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