Nepal’s state-run Food Management and Trading Company will not sell goats and chyangra, or Himalayan goats, during Dashain this year, abandoning a practice it has followed in previous years to help keep festival-season prices in check.

The company decided against buying and selling the animals after repeated road disruptions raised the risk of goats losing weight or dying during transport, according to Madhav Mishra, the company’s information officer.

The decision also reflects continued losses from the business, Mishra said. “We have consistently suffered losses in previous years. “With repeated road disruptions making it difficult to transport the animals, we have decided not to sell goats this year either,” he said. “The purchase and sale of goats and chyangra was therefore not included in this year’s budget programme.”

Some company employees, however, said the move was also driven by the limited impact the sales had on the wider market. They said the company had been unable to intervene on a large enough scale to significantly influence prices. “We found that we could not control goat and chyangra prices through large-scale market intervention, so we decided it would be better to focus on food items instead,” a company employee said.

Last year, the company also decided not to sell goats during Dashain because of the Gen Z-led protests. The decision was made at the time, citing the difficult circumstances. This year, the goat and chyangra sales programme was not included in the company’s budget in the first place.

The company is, however, selling sugar at prices Rs16 per kg below those in the open market.

Subsidised shops operated by the company at 193 outlets in 44 districts are selling sugar at the reduced rate. In Kathmandu Valley, sugar is currently priced at Rs109 per kg, while outlets outside the valley are charging Rs110, Mishra said.

“We are selling sugar at a lower price than what is available in the open market,” he said. “The subsidised shops, which started operating in mid-July, are also offering discounts on other food items besides sugar.”

Sugar is currently selling for around Rs125 to Rs130 per kg in the open market, according to market prices observed by the company. The state-run firm says the lower price is possible because the government has allocated funds to provide relief to consumers.

The company had previously capped sugar purchases at 6 kg per customer at its subsidised outlets. Starting Thursday, the limit will be raised to 25 kg.

“We had kept the limit at 6 kg because sugar was not readily available in the market. Now that the supply situation has improved, we have raised the limit to 25 kg,” Mishra said.

The subsidised shops are also offering a discount of Rs5 per kg on lentils, rice, cooking oil and other food items.

The government has allocated Rs35 million to the company in the current fiscal year, 2026-27, to operate the subsidised shops. So far, Rs6.4 million has been spent. The company plans to keep the outlets running for as long as the allocated funds last.