A Market Study of Honey

Micro Enterprise Development Programme (MEDEP/NEP/97/013) A Market Study of Honey Submitted to: Micro-Enterprise Development Programme And the District Entrepreneurs Submitted by Heidi Arnaudon 26th February 2002 1 Preface The following report displays that in Nepal there is a great potential for growing bee keeping and apiculture enterprise. This document presents marketing and packaging advice and is appropriate for the use of micro entrepreneurs and enterprise that ate thinking of expanding their business and looking for new market. The market study proposes that the demand for honey in Kathmandu is unfulfilled and even though there are various imported products, primarily from India, there is a scope for Nepali producers to gain a higher percentage of the market. There needs to be a cooperative established that displays a standard packaging requirement, which suits the environment it is being sold in. There also needs to be a quality assurance scheme and marketing strategies as per discussed in this report. In this study information was gathered from various restaurants, department stores and hotels in Kathmandu and international market research was drawn from the internet. I sincerely hope that this study will be advantageous to the producers and retailers of honey in Nepal. Acknowledgements I wish to thank MEDEP for supporting me in my research and data collection, particularly Ms. Bidula Shrestha for her advice and fine tuning. I wish the micro entrepreneurs of honey in the rural district every success in their business. 2 Table of Content INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................................5 CHAPTER II......................................................................................................................................7 MEDEP’S BEE-KEEPING PROGRAMME.....................................................................................7 CHAPTER III.....................................................................................................................................9 OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY OF MARKET STUDIES OF ORGANIC HONEY..........9 OBJECTIVES ......................................................................................................................................9 METHOD ...........................................................................................................................................9 LIMITATIONS.....................................................................................................................................9 CHAPTER IV....................................................................................................................................11 MARKET STUDY.............................................................................................................................11 USES OF HONEY IN NEPAL ................................................................................................................11 THE MARKET TARGETED ..................................................................................................................11 BRANDS OF HONEY IN NEPAL ...........................................................................................................11 RESTAURANT AND HOTEL MARKET...................................................................................................13 Findings.......................................................................................................................................13 Recommendations........................................................................................................................13 Willingness to buy........................................................................................................................14 DEPARTMENT STORE MARKET ..........................................................................................................14 TOURIST MARKET PACKAGING .........................................................................................................14 LOCAL COMMUNITY MARKET PACKAGING........................................................................................15 MARKET PRICE.................................................................................................................................15 CHAPTER V EXPORT MARKET FOR NEPALI HONEY...................................................................................17 NEPALESE MARKET ..........................................................................................................................17 US MARKET.....................................................................................................................................17 Basic Regulations.........................................................................................................................18 LABELING REQUIREMENTS................................................................................................................18 UK MARKET ....................................................................................................................................19 AUSTRALIAN MARKET......................................................................................................................20 CHAPTER VI....................................................................................................................................21 CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................21 ANNEX – 1........................................................................................................................................22 CUSTOMER PROFILE....................................................................................................................22 ANNEX - 2.........................................................................................................................................31 VARIOUS BRANDS OF HONEY.....................................................................................................31 ANNEX - 3.........................................................................................................................................35 DEPARTMENT STORE SURVEY..................................................................................................35 3 ANNEX - 4.........................................................................................................................................37 HOTEL AND RESTAURANT SURVEY.........................................................................................37 ANNEX 5...........................................................................................................................................39 INTERNATIONAL MARKET.........................................................................................................39 ANNEX 6 INTERNATIONAL HONEY CONSUMPTION.............................................................42 ANNEX 7...........................................................................................................................................43 INTERNATIONAL HONEY PRODUCTION..................................................................................43 4 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Nepal has a population of 23 million people, which has doubled in the last twenty years. Of the total population 45% are living below the poverty line. The poverty line is set by the National Planning Commission and is said to be at NRs 5,750 (US$78) per annum. Not only does Nepal experience such a phenomenal level of poverty but also high levels of unemployment and under-employment particularly in rural areas. It is estimated that approximately half of the available worktime of Nepali adults is under- utilized. Subsistence farming has been the main livelihood and over 80% of the economically active populations depend on agricultural production. It is a high priority of His Majesty’s government (HMG) and the Ninth Five-Year Plan to promote self- employment opportunities to decrease poverty in communities throughout rural Nepal. The Micro Enterprise Development Program (MEDEP) is a nationally executed program of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MOICS). Run under the technical assistance of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), it is a capacity building 5-year program that aims to contribute to poverty reduction in different rural regions of Nepal. The vision is to establish a partnership between low- income families, consumers and the local service delivery mechanism to create new dynamic micro private business sectors. The micro-enterprise poverty reduction program starts at the local grassroot markets in low-income districts of Nepal. It proposes a comprehensive and sequenced demand driven approach to enterprise creation focusing on local market potential and is output oriented. Market studies, baseline surveys and entrepreneurial aptitude tests indicate which clusters are appropriate to build a local sustainable enterprise. The immediate objective of the program is to match products to clients and utilise the resource potential in the areas of Nepal that are selected. The program has been designed to deliver an integrated package of services including entrepreneurship development, skill training, marketing support, technology and credit and it is the first of its kind in Nepal. MEDEP is targeting

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