I don't know if it was intentional or pure coincidence that Nepali Times #203 had Aruna Uprety's 'Junk food epidemic' and an interview with the CEO of an instant noodle manufacturer ('The noodle kingdom'). I agree with Uprety that advertising, convenience and peer pressure has led children demanding instant snacks that should be avoided as far as possible. However, I fail to understand why more companies are bringing out ever more varieties of noodles into the market when the "production capacity is twice the consumption" and still claim to be a profitable enterprise. Most industries in Nepal fail because too many people copy successful products. The Nepali carpet industry was doing very well and was once the largest export industry. With too many entarnts in the industry, quality was compromised and brought about the its downfall. Pashmina met a similar fate. There were copycats exist not only in the foreign export business but in the local market too. The recent glut of supermarkets, beauty parlours, Nepali restaurants and '99 shops' are part of the same trend. The snacks and chau chau market may appear to be booming, but aren't there already enough companies producing a surfeit of snacks for Nepal? The idea is not to copy what others are doing but to come up with new, more creative ideas for local and export industries.

Sangita Khatri,
Kathmandu