PICS: KIRAN PANDAY

As the temperature hits the higher degrees, the demand for cold drinks, ice cream as well as home appliances like fridge and air conditioners have shot up. And everyone is cashing it. If only the deep fridges would work during the load shedding.

As soon as a Nepali household hooks up electricity, they install lights, a television and a refrigerator: in that order. In fact ref sales have zoomed and have outstripped other electrical appliances despite power cuts.

"The demand for fridges has zoomed even in places like Lukla, Namche and Jomsom as rural electrification spreads,' says Prabhakar Thapa of Him Electronics. "Changing lifestyle and growing affluence has influenced the need for fridges at home."

Four years the total annual sales of refs in Nepal was only 25,000. That figures has now doubled, and would probably have been more if there were no power cuts. Kathmandu constitutes 30 per cent of the market, the rest 70 per cent are sold outside the Valley and sales nationwide have been growing at 20 per cent a year to total Rs 800 million last year.

There are 24 ref brands in the market from LG, Samsung, Whirlpool, Hitachi, Haier to Yasuda, Sanyo, Toshiba with capacities in the 80 to 1,500 litres range.

LG offers refrigerators that don't need stablisers and have energy-saving technology. Ashok Khanna, senior general manager of Goldstar Nepal says LG has one-third share of the sales. The distributors of LG, Chaudhary Group has also introduced CG refrigerators.

Neck-to-neck in terms of sales is Samsung with 40 per cent of market share, according to Binaya Tripathi, marketing manager of Samsung's distributor Him Electronics. "Affordable price, high quality, easy maintenance and good service has made Samsung popular," he says.

Aman Agrawal, director of Ishita Trading which distributes Haier and Godrej refrigerators, says that the competition between the brands is now fierce. Haier and Godrej refs are priced in the Rs 9,000 to Rs 40,000 range.

Anil Goyanka, general manager of Tribeni Nepal says that customers should not look only at the price but also at the quality. Tribeni Nepal distributes Sanyo and Yasuda. The classic Whirlpool brand is sold by Nabin Distributors and prices range from Rs 14,000 to Rs 65,000.

Despite the electricity shortage, the market of air conditioners has also seen a surge as middle class homes upgrade from fans and use aircons also for heating. Samsung, AX, Panasonic, Yasuda, Gree, Macquae, Hilltake, York are among 12 brands that are available in the market with prices ranging from Rs 25,000 to anywhere up to Rs 200,000. Goyanka of Tribeni says that the market has grown for AC in the last five years.

Summer also means rising sales of aerated beverages and ice creams. Coke, which holds half the market share introduced a scheme of prize money worth Rs 100,000 in spring. Its competition, Pepsi recently sponsored a rafting trip for 200 winners in a scheme for Mountain Dew. The group also markets Mirinda, 7Up and Everest soda. The newly introduced Slice in a pet bottle has also attracted customers.

The demand graph for dairy products, especially ice cream has also seen a rise along with the rise in temperature. The trend of having ice cream as a dessert item at parties has caught on, sending the demand for milk soaring 20 per cent annually. Although power cuts have affected ice cream sales in the districts, Shiyaram Prasad Singh of DDC says: "Because a majority of our products go to big department stores, the load shedding has not really affected the sales."

Arniko Rajbhandari of ND's says ice cream has really caught on, and predicts an exponential growth if power was regular. The distributor of Baskin Robbins, Rabi Rajkarnikar, says international brands have started making their mark as the purchasing power of the urban middle class rises.