Myagdi’s Allo cloth producers struggling to stay afloat

By Our Correspondent,Myagdi (Beni) Dec. 17: There is a lack of market for cloths produced from Allo in Myagdi. In the rural parts of Myagdi, cloths are prepared from Allo thread. Entrepreneurs are in trouble after two years of declining sales of the fabric.

The women of Rum, Doba, Debisthan, Mudi and other rural areas of the district used to earn good money by making cloths from processed lokta of Allo, found in abundance in local forest. But the entrepreneurs said the recently produced cloths have not found a market.

In Dharapani, in Dhawalagiri Rural Municipality 7, a local youth has been operating the Allo cloth industry for six years now. Local youth Kiran Thapa set up the factory in 2016 with the investment of Rs. 3.5 million to make better use of locally produced raw materials. 

The company Natural Nepalese Handicraft Product and Marketing set up by Thapa has been producing cloths by processing Allo found in the local forest. He said that nine people were working daily to prepare cloths in the factory. 

According to Thapa, although the industry was brought into operation with the aim of providing employment opportunities to the local residents by making use of the Allo available in the forests of Gurja, Mudi, Lulang and Malkwang, they were scrambling to find a market for the cloths recently produced. 

“Produced cloths are being stored in the warehouse because of lack of buyers. We are struggling even to pay the raw material collectors and other workers,” he said. Entrepreneur Thapa said that the habit of wearing clothes produced from Allo has not been developed in the country.

Due to the decrease in the arrival of foreign tourists because of the coronavirus pandemic, exports nosedived, and now the Russia-Ukraine war has only made it worse, he added.  “Before the pandemic hit, the annual sales were between Rs. 900,000 to Rs. 1,000,000. It is really hard to stay afloat these days. I am looking for a market, but it’s nowhere to be found,” he lamented.