Nepal Imported 11.7 Billion Rupees Of Fruit in The First Nine Months Of The Current Fiscal Year

Agriculture is the main economic sector in Nepal, contributing more than a third of the country's gross domestic product, and more than two-thirds of the population depends on it, The Republic reports April 25. 

But large areas of arable land in Nepal remain barren, and 7 percent of the country's total arable land is uncultivated. Nepal has been importing large amounts of agricultural products, with statistics showing that in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, Nepal imported 11.7 billion rupees worth of fruit, nearly 60 billion rupees of food, and 1.8 million kilograms of tobacco and tobacco products. 

The country has spent billions of dollars on imports of consumer goods, even agricultural products that could have been produced domestically, through foreign exchange, according to import and export information released by the customs department for the first nine months of the current fiscal year. It is known that billions of foreign exchange flows out of the country in imports of major grains such as rice, corn and millet, as well as fruits.