Immerging and disappearing new agri products in Nepal

Ganesh Shakya

Diversified ecological condition permits producing different types of agricultural products in Nepal. Grasping the typical natural gift, Nepalese are encouraged to produce various new agricultural products in different time. This is definitely a good job. But, the producers or the initiators themselves are not sure whether it will long last or not. It means there is no long term vision specially in marketing sector. Similarly, the closely related agencies are also not well prepared for sustainable development of the newly introduced products.

Stevia, Pepino melon, Ground apple, Aloe Vera, kiwi fruits, Avocado, Dragon fruits are the example of some new products introduced in Nepal.   Among these products, Stevia is almost disappeared. Similarly, Aloe Vera is also going to be disabled in its crawling stage. The farmers are supposed to loose their investment owing to lack of proper market of Aloe Vera. Where is market of pepino melon and ground apple? No body knows.

It is not that this type of unpleasant episode has not been seen in the past. And, here the farmers/producers are also equally responsible for the unpleasant result. Because some farmers were found doing copy business such as following other farmers specially the neighbors who had harvested the crops and marketed well at good price. The follower farmer starts farming without any concrete plan just for making profit as he/she had seen the profit made by neighbor farmer. We have many bitter experience as such in the past that the farmers have to throw the produces either on the road or laid in the field to be rotten. All the are the result of lack of marketing knowledge.  Farmers do investment, hard labor and produce the crop well but what is the value if they can not reap their hard labor.

Sometimes ago, Niger seeds produce in Nepal used to export in Europe and USA. But now, it is completely braked off. Similarly, once the farmers were very interested in quail farming and it has been extended as far as possible. But, now this is also not in existence.  These are all due to lack of marketing consciousness among the farmers, producers and the initiators.

One can produce or introduce any new products in the market, but he must study the market and marketing situation before jumping to produce new products. At least, a producer must be aware of following important marketing knowledge.

Demand and Supply

A farmer/producer must have a general knowledge about demand and supply theory because demand and supply plays a vital role in marketing economics. It would be simply better to know the demand situation of the products in both national and international markets. It is good for the products having adequate demand in domestic market. But, if the domestic market is not enough, then the producers must try to approach international market. But, to access the international market is not an easy task from both the internal and external point of view. External factor is more complicated in the case of Nepal’s products particularly the agricultural products. Since long time ago, Nepal Government along with private sector had tried to export sweet orange (Junar) to China but it is not yet been succeed. Therefore, any producer must be aware of this factor before producing any new product. Any market has its own absorbing capacity. If the supply is excess to demand, then the market can not absorb it. In this situation, how a producer will manage the excess produces. There is no way for him except selling the produces at low price or even have to throw on the road.

Price

Price of the product plays deciding role in the market. Most producers considered only current price in the market. They don’t think about the result of excess supply. For example: the retail price of Kiwi fruits is normally Rs. 3 to 4 hundred per kg. Similarly, the price of dragon fruit is also very high. They just look over the price and never considered the purchasing power of the buyers. Every Nepali people can not afford the price as such. So, they must figure out the number of target buyers before they produce any new products. Otherwise, the product may disappear after certain time. Therefore, a producer will be prudent if he estimates the number of buyers and their purchasing capacity before producing any new products.

Consumer behavior

Another important factor affecting market is consumer behavior. Taste, color, size, availability, etc are the factors that determined the demand of the products. The price is not always the determinant factor. If the tongue does not like the taste, then just low price is not enough to promote the market. So, it would be better to study the consumer behavior before introducing new product.

Conclusion

These days, Kiwi fruit farming is extending in many parts of the country. Of course, it is good news and also thanks to god because very little complaints are there relating to marketing problem. At present, the market is under the control of fewer producers but what happens when there would be a large number of competitors. Similarly, the market of avocado and dragon fruits are also less competitive. So, the monopoly price is there in the market for these two products. When a new producers enter the market, the price will be automatically falls down and the main fear is that the producers at that time can cover the production cost or not. If they can not cover even the production cost then these produces are also vanished from the market.

Finally, the immerging and disappearing of new products scenario should not be repeated frequently likewise in the past. If anyone wants to grow and introduce any new agricultural products in the market, they should do it in a planned manner so that they should not loose their investment and hard labor.