“Within five years I will come out as the number one social entrepreneur and producer of natural products in Nepal,” says Govinda Ghimire, Chairman of Alternative Herbal Products Pvt Ltd (AHPPL) expressing her determination. One of the winners of Surya Nepal Asha Awards 2012 and also a winner of Abraham Conservation Awards 2011 knows his route to the destination.

Having worked in a community based enterprise with the ownership of local people, Ghimire believes that the way he is working now will take him where he wants to be. Ghimire through the AHPPL is working on producing natural products like organic coffee, organic spices, Marmelos Bael Juice, Aelovera Juice, Chuiri Butter and honey. He says that the production of these products is done by local people under the support and supervision of AHPPL. Branding, marketing, establishment of processing plant among others is done by the company while collection, processing and producing is mostly done by local people.

Investment Plans

To establish AHPPL as the numero uno herbal company, Ghimire believes that higher income and capital base is required than that of today. But he does not feel he has made that required money yet. 

“Alternative Herbal is a small company by all means but it is not so small in terms of the trust it has built and the goodwill it has earned,” he says. Ghimire sees export potentials as the means to make the desired earnings which will be further invested in expansion of working area and product assortment.

Ghimire does not see investment as one of the bigger challenges. He is confident that any bank or financial institution will happily invest in his ventures and the donors too will cooperate with him in his initiatives. “The biggest asset that AHPPL today has is the expertise. I am not looking to sell it but to develop it as the property,” he explains.

Similarly, as an investment expansion plan, Ghimire is planning for plantation of herbs and other raw materials for production of natural products, where he is currently specialised on. He explains that the farming is not done by the company but by local farmers. “We will purchase their production giving them buy back guarantee so that they need not worry about getting the right value and market for their products,” he added. 

Ideal Expansion

AHPPL initially produced herbal tea. Then it expanded its product range to organic coffee, spices and herbal soaps. Beginning this year, the company has also started exporting Chiuri butter. It has already exported this product worth Rs 5 million. Its production was 4000 kg last year and this year, according to Ghimire, production has doubled to 8000 kg. 

The company’s one of the major products, Marmelos (brand of bael juice) is picking up within the domestic market.  Currently, 100,000 bottles of this juice are sold within Kathmandu Valley annually. As the public liking for the product is increasing, the people in Siraha, Saptari and Bardiya have started bael plantation to produce juice. Currently, from two areas each, 50,000 litres of juice is produced annually. The initiative of the AHPPL has promoted one village one product (OVOP) in areas where the company is concentrated.

Ghimire and his company began working in Siraha, Saptari, Makwanpur and Chitwan districts. Now, the work has expanded to 16 districts with networks of value chain. According to Ghimire, institution is developed in local level that mechanises the production and supply side which further helps in having legal source of the products. 

There are entrepreneurs who complain about the lack of infrastructures for carrying out business initiatives. But, for Ghimire, the absence of road is not a problem. He says, “We work in that place where there is resource rather than looking for road access and infrastructures.”

Benefits to People 

Ghimire believes in working on fair trade values for profit making. He explains that if a product costs Rs 100, Rs 51 goes to the producer while Rs 49 is received by the market value chain and concerned stakeholders. In the process to produce 17 products, 2500 households from 16 districts are directly benefitted. Ghimire says that people directly get the money which they can use for their needs. He says that the company registers annual turnover of Rs 10 million.

Ghimire said that people who were involved in hunting of wild animals for their living now have stopped their old profession and involved in juice production. Similarly, in Siraha and Saptari bael trees were fell to fire brick kilns but after people knew about the importance of the fruits of that tree, they now have started plantation of bael that has not only protected environment but also helped in generating income for local community. This is one of the reasons he was awarded with the conservation awards.

The company had to struggle hard in maintaining consistency in quality of the products in the initial days. Similarly, branding was another challenge but Ghimire says it has been solved by now. Ghimire says that technical knowhow is given to local people while all the responsibilities of branding and marketing are taken by the company.

Future of Alternative Herbal

Ghimire claims that the AHPPL has been established as an example among various government and private agencies as a successful model of social enterprise. He says that the goodwill and image of the company is yet to be converted into cash. So, he is planning to cash his intangible resources. Similarly, he is soon planning to establish a processing plant with an investment of Rs 50 million.

Genesis of Alternative Herbal

Ghimire is a lawyer by education but he never practiced law in court. He believes that the education he has got about law has proved to be of great help to him throughout his business career. Having worked as an employee for around half a decade in an environmental organisation, Centre for Agro Ecology and Development, he served as a social worker concentrating in Chepang Village in Chitwan district. He was working for enhancing the livelihood through income generation programmes for local people. The duration of almost seven years as an employee exposed him to a sea of practical knowledge about the marketing nitty-gritty and natural products know-how. Meanwhile, he also established a cooperative with support from donor agencies like SNV and OXFAM.

 

Having worked with and for the local community, he developed nerves for enterprise. He also closely witnessed the wrongdoings of the middlemen and was not satisfied with the way local people were not getting the right price of their productions. Working in the market linkages, he understood how things should be done.

 

Having a fire of entrepreneurship along with the technical know-how, he went ahead to establish a company of his own: Alternative Herbal Pvt Ltd. To begin with, he had four like-minded partners along with the investment of the cooperative that he established in his initiative. Ghimire says that the initial investment was only Rs 500,000. Herbal tea was the first product the company produced and marketed.

 

In the initial days, products such as herbal tea were exported to European market including Belgium. A Belgium based company was taking the responsibility to supply goods to the European market. Ghimire admits that the products were not well received there because of the quality. But he says things are now changing. Having spent a lot of time and resources in research and development, Ghimire says that his products are well received in both domestic and  international market as the company has been able to improve the quality as well as diversity of product range.