Nepal Livestock Traders Association (NLTA) and NFC are expected to put 100,000 goats, sheep and mountain goats for sale this year.[break]
NFC officials said the government owned food supplier has procured around 500 goats on Wednesday and began the distribution as well. “Since today is the very first day of the Dashain festival, only some goats have been sold today,” said an NFC official. He said NFC will bring more goats from Thursday.
While the state-owned food supplier is preparing to sell 3,000 goats, NLTA is planning to bring in 55,000 goats and 45,000 sheep and mountain goats for the festival. Similarly, the valley received some 2,000 mountain goats and around 1,000 goats Wednesday through NLTA.
Mountain goats have been procured from Tibet while goats have been sourced from the local market including Salyan, Katari, Kohalpur, Nepalgunj, among others. “During previous years, we used to receive around 10,000 mountain goats and sheep and some 7,000 goats on the day of Ghatasthapana,” said Deepak Thapa, president of NLTA.
He said a continued rain has affected the supply of goats in the capital. “The local administration and traffic police are reported to be harassing the merchants,” he said. Thapa accused the local administration of harassing the merchants by asking unnecessary tax and the traffic police of imposing ban on the supply of goats through public buses.
“If this continues, the consumer in Kathmandu will be forced to pay about Rs 315 - Rs 320 per kg for a goat during this year´s Dashain, some Rs 15 - Rs 20 more than what they are paying today,” claimed Thapa.
NLTA officials said it still takes two to three days to receive mountain goats from Mustang. They said the capital will receive around 4,000 to 4,500 goats from the Indian markets as well.
They said about 150 mountain goats have been sold in Kathmandu Wednesday.
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