After being suspended for nearly six months, boulder export from Bhutan has been resumed since 15 September. Boulder is one of the most exported commodities of the Himalayan kingdom.

The export, which was halted on 23 March of this year due to nationwide shutdown in the wake of Covid-19 crisis, resumed this week, and loaded around 102 trucks of aggregates totaling 4020.57 metric tonnes.

The Bhutanese government has set the standard operating procedures which necessitated dredging companies to set up the containment zones and could be used by exporters.  

According to the data from Provisional Bhutan Trade Statistics, boulder was the third most exported commodity from January to June of this year. Currently 60 truckloads of boulder with aggregates are being exported by six exporters on a daily basis.

Exporters are facing the problem with documentation as the containment zones don’t weighbridge for which Bhutan export association is currently working on to establish a common weighbridge for all exporters and dredgers.

In 2019, Bhutan exported boulders worth $67 million- an increase of $38 million from 2018.  

https://kuenselonline.com/boulder-export-resumes/