Kathmandu. Although the demand for ghee is high during the festive season, the domestic dairy industry has not been able to supply it as per the demand of the market. Industrialists have said that the supply of ghee and butter is under pressure due to the lack of expected increase in milk production and the control of informal imports from the border. <\/p>\n
Sumit Kedia, director of Sitaram Gokul Milks Pvt. Ltd. and former president of the Nepal Dairy Association, has demanded the government to allow the import of butter in 15 kg packets as a raw material required by the industry. He said that such facility should be provided for a certain period if the domestic production is not able to meet the demand of the market. According to Kedia, his industry used to sell about 10 tonnes of ghee per month under normal conditions, but now it has not been able to supply more than 3.5 tonnes. According to this, the supply of ghee to the industry has decreased by more than 65 percent compared to the normal situation. <\/p>\n
“There has been continuous demand from sweet shops, hotels and restaurants, but we have not been able to provide it,” he said, “Even the customers who have signed a supply agreement with us for the whole year are facing problems in the business relationship as they have not been able to provide goods as per the demand.” According to him, even though the season of increasing milk production has started, the milk collected from the farmers has not increased as expected. He said that the milk production, which used to be around 35 to 40 lakh liters per day under normal circumstances, has not reached the expected level. <\/p>\n
In Nepal, the period from October to February is considered to be the time to increase milk production. But this year, the dairy industry has not been able to get enough raw materials required for ghee and butter production as the production did not increase as expected. <\/p>\n
On top of that, the supply of informal dairy products from India has come under control, which has led to further shortages in the market, according to Kedia. He said that in the past, both domestic production and informal imports helped meet the market demand, but now the gap in the market has increased due to the decrease in informal supply. <\/p>\n
He said that while he took the informal import control positively, there should be a flexible arrangement for the industry to import the necessary raw materials. “We are not saying that all dairy products should be allowed to be imported. Our only demand is to allow the import of 15 kg butter for some time,” he said. <\/p>\n
He said that the industry can produce ghee from the imported butter and supply it to the market and if the domestic milk production increases, the import can be stopped. He said that the government should change the import policy according to the market situation and the needs of the industry.<\/p>\n
He said that the shortage of ghee may also change the consumption behavior of consumers. He said that if ghee is not available in the market, consumers can use edible oil as an alternative and this will also affect the market of the domestic dairy industry. <\/p>\n
From the stock of powder and butter to the situation of scarcity<\/p>\n
According to Kedia, a few years ago, when milk production increased in Nepal, the industry used to produce powder and butter from milk that could not be consumed in the market. At that time, the increase in stock would affect the payment cycle of the industry and the farmers would be delayed in getting money for milk. <\/p>\n
But now the situation has changed. He said that the industry does not have enough stock of milk powder and butter and the payment to the farmers has also improved compared to the past. According to him, there is no problem in the payment of farmers as before. He claimed that the production capacity and quality of the Nepali dairy industry has also improved.<\/p>\n
According to him, although there was problem in the quality of processing technology and raw milk in the past, the industry has now improved the quality of production. <\/p>\n
He urged the hotel and restaurant entrepreneurs to change their old perception about the quality of Nepali milk products. He said that the industry should be advised on the necessary improvements by using Nepali products. Meanwhile, Kedia said that the message should not be sent that the state is promoting only the public sector Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) and that the private sector dairy industry should also be encouraged equally. He said that the use of both public and private sector dairy products by the Prime Minister and other top officials of the state will send a positive message to the market. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kathmandu. Although the demand for ghee is high during the festive season, the domestic dairy industry has not been able to supply it as per the demand of the market. Industrialists have said that the supply of ghee and butter is under pressure due to the lack of expected increase in milk production and theContinue reading “Import of butter should be temporarily opened to meet market demand of ghee: Kedia”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":126659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-samachar-en"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/web-post_489eaf9a.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126741,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126740\/revisions\/126741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/media\/126659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}