Ginger from Nisdi Reaches Germany: Local Women Farmers Lead Export Success

In recent years, the daily lives of farmers—especially women—in Ward No. 5 of Nisdi Rural Municipality, Palpa, have transformed significantly. Ginger farming was always present in the area, but farmers struggled to find stable markets. Whatever little they managed to sell was through middlemen, often at poor prices.

Previously, locals used firewood to dry and produce “Sutho” (dry ginger) for sale. However, the establishment of Galdha Social Entrepreneur Women’s Cooperative in 2016 (2073 BS) marked a turning point. Since then, promotion of local agriculture has gained momentum, and machines have replaced traditional firewood drying to produce dried ginger flakes (“Chana”).

Located 65 km from Tansen, the district headquarters, Nisdi is now seeing a surge in commercial ginger cultivation. Since 2021 (2078 BS), the cooperative has started directly purchasing ginger from farmers. Today, the cooperative has 541 women shareholders, with 272 actively engaged in ginger farming.

According to manager Dilmaya Saru, about 900 ropani (around 45 hectares) of land in Ward No. 5 is now used for ginger cultivation. “Earlier, we used to sell ginger only in nearby town markets where it fetched low prices. But now, we’re even exporting to foreign countries,” she said.

The cooperative began exporting ginger to Europe three years ago. “In the first year, we exported 805 kg to Germany at NPR 350 per kg. In the second year, the volume increased to 4,460 kg at NPR 750 per kg,” Saru shared. “So far this year, we’ve exported 14,560 kg at NPR 493.9 per kg, totaling NPR 7.19 million in earnings.”

To produce this amount, the cooperative purchased 115,000 kg of fresh ginger from local farmers at NPR 60 per kg. The profit gained from selling at higher prices is retained by the cooperative and distributed as annual bonuses to shareholder members.

Out of 93,373 kg processed, only 14,000 kg of dry ginger flakes were produced. “It takes about 6.5 kg of fresh ginger to make just 1 kg of flakes,” said Saru. Additionally, 8,690 kg of ginger juice concentrate was exported to Germany this year alone, earning the cooperative over NPR 819,467.

With support from Heifer International Nepal and Akesta Nepal, 20,000 kg of the “Nase” variety of ginger was dried and prepared for export. However, the demand could not be fully met. Heifer also provided both technical and financial support from cultivation to processing.

Government and non-governmental support helped the cooperative acquire equipment for washing, slicing, drying, grinding, and packaging ginger—creating employment for local women.

To ensure organic quality, German certification agency CERES visits farmers’ homes and verifies the standards. Only ginger certified organic is considered eligible for export. Akesta Nepal acts as the key export facilitator to Europe.

Cooperative Chairperson Ammaya Mashrangi shared that for the first time, they successfully exported raw ginger with organic certification. “Although we had a demand for 20,000 kg of raw ginger, we couldn’t meet it due to limited production,” she said.

The cooperative had aimed to export more juice-grade ginger, but the “Bose” variety did not yield as expected. The limited availability of certified organic dry flakes also reduced overall exports.

Narayani Dhungana from the cooperative emphasized their efforts to empower women through cash crop cultivation like ginger.

Currently, only the ginger from Galdha is certified organic, but initiatives are underway to certify produce from nearby areas such as Jyamire, Mityal, Jhiruwas, and Sahalkot.

Previously, ginger produced in Nisdi was sold locally in Butwal, Bhairahawa, Kathmandu, and even across the border in India. “Now we are preparing to export to other countries as well,” said Manager Saru. “Interest in ginger farming is increasing.”

India remains the primary market for Nepali ginger. According to the Department of Customs, in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year, Nepal exported 3.24 million kg of ginger worth NPR 543.67 million.

Of this, 2.54 million kg of fresh ginger worth NPR 289.8 million was exported—most of it (2.53 million kg worth NPR 287.8 million) went to India.

In terms of dry ginger, 299,211 kg worth NPR 48.4 million was exported. Fresh ginger also reached Japan (30 kg worth NPR 13,000) and Switzerland (10 kg worth NPR 8,000).

In addition, 6,009 kg of dry ginger worth NPR 3.8 million and 8,690 kg of fresh ginger worth NPR 2 million were exported to the Netherlands. After India, Germany was the second-largest importer, receiving 210,460 kg of dry ginger worth NPR 171.5 million.