On Monday, the retailers were found selling kwati at Rs 130 per kg, whereas till Sunday it was priced Rs 100 per kg. "This is the price of regular mixture of beans. [break]If you want to add special beans from your own side, you will need to pay up to Rs 180 per kg," said Siddhi Gorkhali, office secretary of Nepal Retailers Association (NRA).
With just three days to go for the festival, retailers are presently supplying Kwati in three different varieties. While Kwati incorporating all major grains cost Rs 180 per kg, customers preferring combination of lesser varieties of beans can also go for the supply that cost Rs 150 per kg.
The traders did not attribute the rise to the fast approaching festival though. They linked it with the growing prices of the beans themselves.
"The prices of beans such as white pea, green pea, kidney beans, white grams and different varieties of soyabeans themselves have gone up of late," said Gorkhali. As Nepal largely depend on imports to fulfill the demand of these beans, he said the rise in international prices primarily moved up the Kwati´s price.
The rise in prices has not deterred consumption though. Ganga Ram Maharjan sales executive of Brown Rice and Health Foods at Indra Chowk said sales of Kwati at outlets in Ason, Indrachowk and Mahabouddha had increased by almost three-fold over the past one week.
"I myself is selling 30 kg of Kwati a day since Saturday," said Maharjan. Prior to that, his daily sales of Kwati was around 10 kg a day.
The demand is bound to go up irrespective of the pricing because the centuries old tradition seeks you to consume Kwati on Janai Poornima, said Sudhan Shrestha proprietor of Shrestha Store at Koteshwor, disclosing similar rise in demand.
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