FMTC starts selling goats for Dashain at concessional price

Published On: October 1, 2019 08:17 AM NPT By: Sujita Pradhan

Live goats being sold at Rs 550, mountain goats at Rs 730 per kg

KATHMANDU, Oct 1: Food Management and Trading Company Ltd (FMTC) has started selling mountain goats and goats for Dashain festivals.

The state-owned trading company started selling goats at a discounted price, keeping in view the rising demand of goat meat during the festivals. The FMTC has planned to sell around 3,000 goats this year during the time of Dashain, according to officials.

The FMTC has fixed the price of live mountain goat at Rs 730 per kg and Rs 550 per kg for goats after providing a 10percent discount.

“We have given priority to sell goats over mountain goats. So, we are supplying goats at a concessional price for the public. We believe mountain goats are demanded by those who can afford a little more, and the price is a bit expensive. Still, the price of mountain goats is cheaper compared to normal prices in the market,” said Yogendra Gauchan, director general at the FMTC.
According to the company, 2,000 mountain goats have been brought from Mustang and the other 1,000 goats from Hetauda and Dang. Similarly, the company has already brought 400 goats from Hetauda and 916 goats from Dang.

Gauchan claimed that the government-owned company sells healthier goats.
“There might be goats and mountain goats available in the market which might be of lower quality. But, we have verified that the goats that we are selling were really reared in Mustang and fed medicinal plants. So they are very healthy,” he claimed.

The FMTC has set the purchase limit of one goat per family. He said that they have set the quota for each family to make sure that the maximum number of families gets goats sold by the government at concessional price.

However, officials of the FMTC have not done anything to enforce this limit as it might be difficult to identify people who have bought the goats.

The price that the FMTC has set is likely to result into losses for the government while selling each goat for discounted price. For example, the cost for the FMTC to buy a goat from Dang stands at Rs 570 per kg, excluding the transportation cost, according to Gauchan.

Meanwhile, traders in the market are selling live goats at a price range of Rs 550 to Rs 650 per kg and mountain goats at Rs 750 to Rs 800 per kg.

However, traders are worried about the possible shortage of goats in Kathmandu in the wake of the festive season due to halt in imports after quarantine certificates were made mandatory.

“We estimate that the demand of goats could surge to 35,000 during Dashain. About 70 percent of the demand used to be met from imports. However, we will have to meet the demand from domestic farmers due to problem in import in recent months. We hope to supply nearly 15,000 goats from domestic farmers,” said Bhanu Bhakta Parajuli, president of Nepal Livestock Traders Association (NLTA). “However, there will not be shortage if the imports resume. We are working toward that end,” he added.