Achar, Pickles and Condiments Distribution in Nepal: Batches, Glass Jars and Shelf Rotation

Achar sits on almost every Nepali table, and many of the best-known brands started in a home kitchen. The trade looks simple: make a batch, fill jars, sell through shops. The details are where producers struggle. Glass jars break on hill roads, lids leak, batches made in different seasons get mixed on the shelf, and a new shop that takes six jars may never reorder without anyone finding out why. This guide follows a jar from the kitchen to the kirana shelf and shows how to run each step in gamitrack. It does not cover food-safety licensing; follow the rules that apply to you.

From batch to shelf: the path of one jar

Every jar passes through the same five points. Each is a place to record something.

Point	What happens	What to record
Making	A lot of lapsi, mula, mango or chilli achar is prepared	Batch reference and expiry date
Godown	Jars are labelled, packed in cartons and stored	Batch received into a branch
Dispatch	Orders are packed, oldest batch first	Order and batch movement
Delivery	Driver drops cartons at the shop or wholesaler	Proof of delivery, breakage photo
Shelf	The jar waits to be sold	Shelf photo and stock note at each visit

When something goes wrong, you want to be able to walk back along this path. That only works if every point was recorded when it happened.

A batch-trace drill

Imagine a customer complains that a jar of chilli achar tasted off. What do you do in the first hour? Practise this before it happens.

1. Read the batch from the label. Batch reference and expiry must be printed on every jar.
2. Find the batch in gamitrack. Each production lot is received into a branch as a batch with its expiry date.
3. See where it went. Because stock movements are append-only, the history shows which branch received it, any transfers, and what moved out while that batch was the oldest on hand. Cross-check with the dispatches of those days.
4. Check the rest of that batch. Look at what remains in the godown and which shops received it recently.
5. Decide and record. If you pull stock back, raise returns with a clear reason so the credit notes and stock movements match.

If any step fails, for example because jars from two batches share one label, fix the labelling before the next making season.

Glass, lids and the carton

Breakage is the most visible cost in this trade. Most of it is preventable with packing rules everyone follows.

• Pack glass jars in cartons with dividers, never loose in sacks.
• Keep the heaviest cartons at the bottom and glass on top, never under.
• Check lids and pouch seals at dispatch, not at the shop.
• Pack large catering tubs for restaurants and momo shops separately.
• Do not overstack in the vehicle, especially on long hill routes.

When breakage does happen, make it evidence. The delivery person records proof of delivery with GPS, a photo and the receiver's name. If jars are found broken at the shop, photograph them and raise a return with the reason damaged. A manager reviews and approves the credit note. After a month, sort returns by route and by vehicle: if one route produces most of the claims, the answer is in the packing or the loading on that route.

Winning a new shop: the two-visit rule

A shop that takes a few jars once and never reorders is common, and usually nobody knows why. A simple rule helps:

• First visit: a small first order across two or three of your best sellers, with a clear introductory scheme that has start and end dates.
• Second visit, within two weeks: check the shelf. Did the jars move? Are they at the front? Is a competing brand cheaper?
• Then adjust: a shop that sold out gets a larger standing order; a shop with jars still sitting gets a smaller pack size or a different flavour.

In gamitrack, salespeople can add a new shop with its GPS location, and it goes to a manager for approval before it becomes active. Each visit is GPS-verified against the shop's geofence with a photo, which works well as a shelf photo. A short closing-stock note ("lapsi 4 jars, mula 0") and, when there is no order, a no-order reason such as has old stock tell you what the second visit needs to fix. Visits that are too short, outside the geofence or missing a photo are flagged for the manager.

A rough making and selling calendar

Many achar varieties follow the produce season. Timing varies by region and year, so use your own records to refine it.

Season (approx.)	Typical making	Selling focus
Summer	Mango and other summer achar	Restock kirana beats, restaurants
Monsoon	Limited making; watch storage	Rotate older batches, check lids
Autumn, festival run-up	Lapsi, mixed achar, gift packs	Gift and specialty shops, supermarkets
Winter	Mula, chilli, tomato achar	Heavier sauce use, catering packs

Before each selling peak, set low-stock levels on the items that ran out last year, and give officers monthly targets with daily pace so the run-up is visible week by week.

Selling through wholesalers in other towns

Once you go beyond your own beat, wholesalers carry your jars to smaller towns. Treat them as dealers. They can order from you through the dealer app; your officers can book secondary orders from shops that a wholesaler fulfils. A monthly dealer stock report compares the wholesaler's expected closing stock with their count, which shows whether your jars are selling or sitting in their godown. Tiered schemes can reward wholesalers on fulfilled secondary sales.

Prices come from price lists: a party override beats a party-type list, which beats the default, so supermarkets, wholesalers and kirana shops each get the right rate. VAT at 13% applies only on taxable lines, and invoices are IRD-format and numbered per fiscal year. Credit runs from dispatch, payments are allocated oldest-first, and the ledger and aging show which wholesaler is late.

Questions small producers ask

Do I need a sales team to start? No. Many producers begin with the owner or one person running a weekly beat. The same app covers visits, orders, delivery proof and collections, so you can add people later without changing the system.

What if a shop insists on credit from the first order? Keep the first order small, set payment due days, and do not send the next order until the first invoice is paid. The party ledger makes that conversation factual.

A small producer's first 30 days

• Week one: add each product and jar size as a SKU; receive your current lots as batches with expiry.
• Week two: set up one weekly beat of shops near you and approve their locations.
• Week three: take a shelf photo and closing-stock note at every visit; try the two-visit rule on three new shops.
• Week four: review breakage returns and the oldest batch in the godown, and change one packing or rotation habit.

Related reading and next step

Related reading: honey and natural products, sweets and namkeen and batch and expiry control with FEFO.

If you want your next batch traceable from kitchen to shelf, see the plans and free trial on our pricing page, or contact us.