By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, July 25: Despite the impact of COVID-19 to the national economy, Nepal’s export trade has improved noticeably in the last fiscal year 2020/21.
According to the Foreign Trade Statistic of Department of Customs, export trade has increased by 44.43 per cent to Rs. 141.12 billion in the last fiscal year 2020/21 compared to the previous fiscal year 2019/20.
In the previous fiscal year 2019/20, Nepal had exported goods worth Rs. 97.7 billion.Import of goods has remained high even after the government imposed restriction order to control COVID-19 in the last fiscal year.
Similarly, import has also increased by 28.66 per cent to Rs. 1,539.83 billion during the review period.
Although there has been a significant increase in exports, the country's trade deficit has widened further.
Nepal’s a trade deficit has reached Rs. 1,398.71 billion during the review period, which is higher by 27.26 per cent compared to the previous fiscal year.
The contribution of imports to the total trade has decreased from 92.45 per cent to 91.60 per cent during the review period. The share of imports in foreign trade has been 91.60 per cent while that of exports is 8.40 per cent.
According to the statistics of the department, total foreign trade has also increased. The country’s foreign trade has reached Rs. 1,680.96 billion during the review period which is 29.85 per cent more than the previous year.

Soybean oil is the number one export
According to the statistics, the export of soybean oil increased to Rs. 53.65 billion in the last fiscal year from the 12.69 billion in 2019/20, which is an increase of 322.77 percent.
The country has exported carpets worth Rs. 7.24 billion and synthetic yarns worth Rs. 8.04 billion during the review period.
Tea and coffee worth Rs. 4.45 billion, cardamom worth Rs. 8.04 billion, sunflower seeds worth Rs. 2.24 billion and felts worth Rs. 4.2 billion were exported during the review period.

Petroleum products of Rs.165 billion imported
Among the imported goods, petroleum products, especially diesel topped the list in the last fiscal year. Petroleum products worth Rs. 165.26 billion imported during the last fiscal year.
Diesel worth Rs. 91.94 billion was imported while cooking gas worth Rs. 36.15 billion, petrol worth Rs. 32.44 billion and aviation fuel worth Rs. 3.60 billion were imported during the review period.
The country imported crude soybean oil worth Rs. 53.37 billion, crude palm oil worth Rs. 7.23 billion and crude sunflower oil worth Rs. 16.24 during the review period.
Similarly, rice, including paddy worth Rs. 50.77 billion, maize worth Rs. 17.3 billion and wheat worth Rs. 10.39 were imported during the period.