Honey and Natural Products in Nepal: Lot Records, Channels and Gifting Seasons

Honey, herbs, herbal teas, oils, dried fruit and other mountain produce are bought on trust. A buyer in a Thamel gift shop, a supermarket manager in Kathmandu and a kirana owner in a Terai town all want the same assurance: that what is in the jar is what you say it is, and that the next jar will be like the last one. You cannot prove that with a label alone. You prove it with records that show where each lot came from and where it went. This guide looks at the honey and natural products trade in Nepal through three lenses that matter more here than in most trades: lots, the gap between harvests, and the very different channels that sell the product.

A lot is a promise

In this trade, a lot is a quantity from one harvest, source or production run. Mixing lots, or selling a new harvest under an old lot's label, is how trust gets damaged, even when nobody meant harm.

A simple naming convention solves most of the problem:

Lot field	Example convention
Product	Wild honey, mustard honey, herbal tea blend
Harvest or production period	Year and season, in Bikram Sambat
Source	Area or producer group
Pack	250 g jar, 500 g jar, bulk tin

In gamitrack, each product and jar size is a SKU, and each lot is received as a batch with its name and, where it applies, an expiry or best-before date. Every receipt, transfer, sale and return is an append-only stock movement, so you can answer "which shops received lot X?" months later.

What gamitrack does not do: it does not test, certify or verify purity, origin or quality. It keeps the record. The claims you make about your product are yours to support, and they should follow the rules that apply to food and natural products in Nepal.

Two calendars that do not line up

Supply follows harvests and collection seasons, which vary by flower source, altitude and region. Demand follows festivals, tourist seasons and the weather. The two rarely match, so a natural products seller is always managing the gap.

Calendar	What drives it	Planning question
Supply	Harvest and collection periods for each product and area	How much of each lot do I have, and when is the next one?
Festival demand	Dashain, Tihar and other gifting occasions	Which key accounts must not run out in this window?
Tourist demand	Main trekking and visitor seasons	Which gift and tourist-area shops need stock before the season?
Everyday demand	Kirana and supermarket shelves through the year	What value pack keeps the shelf filled between harvests?

Months of cover

The most useful number between harvests is months of cover: how long current stock of a product will last at the recent rate of sales. Work it out from stock by lot and recent orders. If cover runs out before the next harvest, you have three choices: allocate the remaining stock to key accounts first, shift kirana shops to a different product, or source from another producer as a clearly named new lot. What you should not do is let the best accounts discover the gap themselves.

Each channel wants something different

Channel	What they value	Visit rhythm	Price approach	Payment pattern
Kirana and general stores	Common jar sizes, value	Regular beat	Default list	Short credit or cash
Supermarkets and health shops	Consistent labels and packs	Scheduled visits	Party type price list	Statement, longer terms
Gift, hotel and tourist-area shops	Attractive gift packs, story of origin	Heavy before seasons	Party type or override	Varies; watch off-season dues
Herbal shops and pharmacies	Selected natural products	Periodic	Party type price list	Short credit
Agents in other towns	Margin and steady supply	Monthly	Agent price list	Agreed terms

In gamitrack, each of these is handled with party types and price lists. The price is chosen from the party's own override first, then the price list for its party type, then the default. VAT applies only on taxable lines and invoices follow the IRD format; check the current IRD rules for your products if you are unsure which lines are taxable.

Build separate routes for each channel: a kirana beat with ordered stops, a supermarket round and a tourist-area route that you visit more often before the season. Officers start the day in the app; each visit is checked against the shop's geofence with a photo, and visits outside the geofence, too short or without a photo are flagged for the manager.

If agents sell in other towns, record their purchases as primary orders and their sales to shops as secondary orders, and use their monthly stock report to compare expected and actual closing stock.

When a customer complains: tracing a jar (hypothetical)

Suppose a supermarket calls to say that some jars of a 500 g honey look different from the last delivery. With lot records, the steps are short:

1. Check which lot was delivered to that supermarket in the last order.
2. Look up where else that lot went, using the stock movements for that batch.
3. Ask the officer to photograph the jars on the shelf during the next visit.
4. If you agree the jars should come back, record a return with a reason and approve it into your branch with a credit note.
5. Decide whether to hold the remaining stock of that lot while you check it.

Without lot records, the only answer is "we will look into it". With them, you can tell the buyer which lot it was and who else received it within minutes. This scenario is illustrative.

Handling, damage and leaks

Glass jars break and lids leak, especially on long routes into the hills. Check seals before dispatch, pack jars with care, and assign larger deliveries to a delivery person who records proof of delivery with GPS, a photo and the receiver's name. If a shop reports breakage, record the return with a reason such as broken or leaking. Over a few months, the return reasons by route tell you whether the problem is packing, transport or a supplier's jars.

Credit across uneven seasons

Gift and tourist-area shops buy heavily before the season and pay slowly after it. Record payments by cash, eSewa, Khalti, Fonepay, bank or cheque against each party. Payments are allocated oldest-first, and the party statement and aging show what is overdue. A weekly collection plan sets who should pay this week and compares planned against actual, so off-season dues do not drift.

Your first 30 days

• Week 1. Enter current stock as named lots, one batch per lot, with best-before dates where they apply.
• Week 2. Set up party types for kirana, supermarket, gift shop, herbal shop and agent, each with its own price list.
• Week 3. Create one route per channel and have officers verify visits with photos.
• Week 4. Work out months of cover for your top products and agree allocations for key accounts before the next festival or tourist season.

Provenance is part of what the customer buys, so your records are part of the product. Being able to say which lot a jar came from supports the trust these products depend on, without making any claim you cannot back up.

Related reading: ayurvedic and herbal products distribution, batch and expiry control with FEFO, and the tea and coffee industry page.

If you would like to see how lot records and channel price lists work on your products, look at the plans on our pricing page or contact us.