Food items worth Rs. 4.61 billion have been imported through the Birgunj customs checkpoint in the first three months of the current fiscal year 2082/83. A total of 16 types of food grains, including paddy, rice, maize, and malt, were imported during this period.

Compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, imports of these 16 food items have increased by Rs. 1.56 billion. In the first three months of the previous fiscal year, food grains worth Rs. 3.04 billion were imported through this checkpoint.

According to Bishnu Prasad Gyawali, Chief Customs Administrator at the Birgunj Customs Office, there has been an increase in food imports during the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

“In the first quarter of this year, the import of food grains and other goods has increased,” he said.

During the first three months of the current fiscal year, 33.6 million kilograms of maize worth Rs. 1.80 billion were imported. In the same period of the previous fiscal year, 21.6 million kilograms of maize worth Rs. 1.09 billion were imported.

Similarly, 39.1 million kilograms of paddy worth Rs. 1.46 billion were imported during the first three months of the current fiscal year. In the same period last year, 29.2 million kilograms of paddy worth Rs. 1.06 billion were imported.

According to the Birgunj Customs Office, during the first three months of the current fiscal year, 9.4 million kilograms of rice worth Rs. 898.2 million were imported. In the same period of the previous fiscal year, 3.8 million kilograms of rice worth Rs. 465.3 million were imported.

In addition to these, 16 types of food items such as malt, buckwheat, millet, gluten, fruit sweeteners, maize or other grain flour, grits, and pulse flour are also imported through this checkpoint.