Safeguarding people’s health has been the global priority amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In Bhutan, emerging lessons show how nutrition and other aspects of health are intricately related to the management of food security during the current crisis, and beyond. The country’s leaders have used moral suasion alongside policy measures to demonstrate that good nutrition need not be a luxury.
Attribution: Om Bhandari, “Safeguarding Food Self-Sufficiency in the Time of COVID-19: Lessons from Bhutan,”
ORF Issue Brief No. 429, December 2020, Observer Research Foundation.
INTRODUCTION
Global trade was already facing disruptions before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, owing to weakened growth and heightened US-China tensions; agriculture commodities were being disproportionately affected.
Bhutan: Orange exports from Tsirang district commence
Dina Nath Adhikari, a Damphu-based exporter initiated the orange export from Tsirang and Dagana districts. The first truckload of oranges -about 300 boxes- were sent to Pasakha on December 13. From Pasakha, Indian vehicles would ship the goods up to the India-Bangladesh border. The Bhutan Agriculture and Food Regulatory Authority officials in the district regulated the quality of oranges at the depot in place of Bangladeshi importers.
A contractor from Drujeygang in Dagana, Jigten Dorji said that the price he fetched from selling a DCM truckload of oranges couldn’t recover the investment. “I have paid Nu 90,000 for two orchards but couldn’t get more than Nu 60,000.” According to him, a box of oranges would fetch only half the price of what it could fetch in previous years.