High demand of Nepali paper plant in Japan

Ilam, May 21 –  Demand for the indigenous Nepali paper is rising in Japan. The demand has gone up as Japan began importing the Nepali paper to print the Japanese currency notes, Yen.

The paper is made by using the bark of the lokta, a shrub that grows in the mountainous and hilly regions.

People from various parts in Ilam district have begun to collect lokta and send it to Japan from Kathmandu after necessary processing in Ilam.

Om Gurung of Majhmajhuwa VDC Ward No. 7 said the raw material prepared from the Nepali paper plant is currently sent to Japan through Kanpow Company.

The company purchases the lokta paper at Rs. 360 per kilogramme in villages as against Rs. 70 per kilogramme which the Nepali paper industries pay.

"My neighbours joined me in collecting and processing the lokta after I made good money from the herb found in the local forests which was otherwise lying unused in villages," added Gurung.

The villagers have earned Rs. 15 million supplying around two tones of the proceses material from the herb. "I myself have sold around five quintals," Gurung said.

With the increasing demand for lokta, farmers in highlands in Ilam district have begun shifted to lokta cultivation giving up farming even on arable land in

Jamuna, Mabu, Jogmai, Gorkhe, Nayabazaar, Pyang, Maimjhuwa, maipokhari, Sulubung, Sumbek, Puwamajhuwa, Chamaita, Sankhejung VDCs and have already started herbs plantation in the commercial way, said Raj Bahadur Rai, of Highlands Herb Producers´ and Conservation Organization.

Rai said a total of approximately 28,000 kilogrammes lokta was produced in Maimjhuwa and that he had alone earned Rs. 160,000 from lokta farming this year. e

source: RSS