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POKHARA, Oct 21: Entrepreneurs are expecting sales of fresh meat to cross Rs 1 billion in Pokhara during the Dashain festival.
“We are expecting to sell mountain-goat and sheep worth of Rs 400 million during the one-week of this festive season,” Gokarna Bhandari, a mountain-goat trader based in Pokhara, said.
The western Nepali city has already seen entry of around 30,000 sheep and mountain-goats during the festive period. Each of these cost around Rs 14,000 on an average. The city has also seen imports of thousands of goats from India, far-western region of the country and the Terai region. Similarly, sales of chicken have also gone up, as consumption of meat has soared during the festival season.
“We sell meat worth millions of rupees per day during the festive season,” Bhandari said. “Restaurants and hoteliers are also demanding more meat as this is a tourist season.”
According to Prem Prasad Poudel, another meat trader, meat consumption is high in Pokhara at other times as well. It is said the western city consumes around 32,000 kg of chicken and 10,000 kg of mutton per day.
"But the demand goes up dramatically during the festivals,” Poudel said. As a result the price of mutton has gone up by Rs 60 per kg to reach Rs 640 per kg in the local market. However, prices of live goat, which hover at Rs 290 to Rs 330 per kg, has remained unchanged this festive season. Prices of sheep and mountain goats have gone up though.
Pokhara is said to be self-reliant on chicken whereas goats are imported from districts of the western region such as Banke, Kailali, Surkhet and are even from India, Poudel informed.
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