Foreign Trade Falls

Nepal's economy is going through a challenging situation even after COVID-19 crisis. It is needless to mention that the pandemic had dealt a severe blow to global economy, and Nepal's economy was not an exception. With a weak industrial base, the country can produce only limited products, with soybean oil and palm oil being the major exportable items. The country adds value to these products and exports them to India after having imported raw materials from different countries. Following COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war has hit the world economy in one way or the other. Almost 10 months have passed since the war began. And it has been quite problematic for many countries globally, including Nepal, to import the raw materials. Consequently, Nepal's export trade has suffered a setback. Raw soybean oil comes from Bangladesh, Argentina, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America (USA) while the country imports raw palm oil from Indonesia, India, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.