Whose Pashmina?
Nepal losing the claim
India’s effort to register a Geographical Indicator (GI) tag for the term “Kashmir Pashmina” is being objected by Pakistan which wants the tag to be shared also by Pakistani region of Kashmir. However, Nepal is so far a silent spectator. Since Pashmina is one of the major exports of the country, Nepal has to lose a lot by forfeiting the right over the name ‘Pashmina’.
It was indeed Nepal which produced the first Pashmina items that went to the international markets in early 1990s and instantly won the popularity in the fashion centres of Europe and America. Till then the exports from Kashmir were called Cashmere which is totally different product from Pashmina, be it in thickness or in finesse.
The opportunity for Nepali Pashmina had come as a result of the flare up of violence in Kashmir since 1989 which reduced production of Cashmere. As the Delhi-based exporters of Cashmere searched for new source of supply, they found Nepali Pashmina which they promoted in their traditional markets. Therefore, the Nepali Pashmina till early years of 1990s was exported only to India from where it was re-exported to Europe and America. Only after the 2001 meeting between Pakistani President Parvez Musharraf and the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that restored peace in Kashmir to some extent did Kashmir start making Pashmina and then afterwards Nepal’s Pashmina exports have reduced. (See table)
While the word Pashmina has its roots in the Persian word Pashm (fine wool), thus making the Kashmiri claim very strong, Nepal too is the habitat of the Chyangra goat from the underbelly of which the Pashm is harvested.
According to the Nepali Pashmina industry sources, they are at present simply trying to get a quality certification logo for Nepali Pashmina. As Nepal still does not have a law to govern the GI registration though Nepal got WTO membership in 2004 May, it is understandable that the Nepali Pashmina industry can do hardly anything to get the GI tag. Still the list of weaknesses of both the government and the Pashmina industrialists does not end here.
The government had promised, while presenting this year’s national budget in mid-July 2007, to provide various helps, including 70 percent subsidy on the cost of registering Nepali Pashmina brand in the foreign countries. But the industrialists have failed to utilize this. Just recently they reported that a Nepal logo was being developed to be affixed at Nepali Pashmina to authenticate its genuineness. The government, on its part, has not done anything to get a separate HS code for Pashmina in the absence of which the product is still being exported under the same HS code that is assigned for Cashmere. The industrialists have, by describing Pashmina as Cashmere in their publicity material, complicated the matter further.
Pashmina Exports from Nepal |
Year |
Value(Rs. In 000) |
1998-99 |
730,123 |
1999-00 |
3,877,965 |
2000-01 |
5,269,548 |
2001-02 |
1,852,220 |
2002-03 |
1,534,081 |
Source: Trade & Export Promotion Centre |
