Dairy makes up nine percent contribution to GDP

Surkhet, Dec 30 The dairy business has nine percent contribution to the country’s GDP. Statistics supporting this fact was unveiled in the 20th National General Assembly of the Nepal Dairy Association which concluded in Birendrangar. Dairy industries at home annually pay revenue of Rs one billion to the government. As the Association said, rural areas supply milk worth Rs 30 million on a daily basis to city areas.

At present, every day, production of five million litres of milk takes place at home and farmers themselves consume 50 percent of the production. The grievances of people associated in the dairy business are that despite a valuable contribution to the GDP, the dairy business is yet to get a due recognition from the State.

Association general secretary Prahlad Dahal said 500 thousand families of farmers are associated with the dairy industry and over 30 thousand are directly employed in it. He expressed his concern over the government decision to withdraw the 50 percent VAT exemption given to dairies, thus making them hard to compete with imported products.

However, the situation of dairy business in the Karnali province is not encouraging. As the Association claims, the production at the province level is 50 percent insufficient to meet the demand. (RSS)