The fragrance of mangoes gets stronger on the second floor where dried mangoes pieces are spread on huge trays. “We just finished a batch of dried mangoes. Now, we will add some ingredients and turn it into dried candies,” says Amatya.[break]
Most of the spaces in Amatya’s residence are used for his small industry which he has named Fresh Himalayan Agro Products Pvt Ltd. Even the terrace is packed with four sets of drier boards, each one neatly fixed in two columns through the breadth of the terrace. These drier boards are airtight and are used to dry varieties of fruits with the help of solar board beneath it. The fans at the side of the boxes are used to avoid the overheating of the fruits.
When Amatya speaks of his treasured boxes, there is a sense of pride, joy and excitement at the same time. One can feel the tinge of excitement when they stand in Amatya’s terrace, partly because of the host’s enthusiasm and partly due to the extraordinary view.
An MSc graduate in Botany, Amatya says that he has earned his current setup with 12 years of hard work and patience. Now his products are favorites of the expatriate population of the capital. “Many expats even order jams and juices from Palpa and Pokhara,” says the proud owner of the fruit products which boasts of being all natural, with no processing and no preservatives and colors added to them.
But it wasn’t until he was 50 when he decided to have his own fruit processing factory. Though he had knowledge about plants and their subsequent processing to modify them into different products, the current business wasn’t what he had envisioned himself doing.
“When I was young, I had never thought that I would own a fruit factory,” he says. Born and raised at Thankot, the northeast border town of the Kathmandu Valley, his ambition when he had just completed his Intermediate was to establish a high school in his hometown.
“My father was a Pradhan Pancha (village headman) then, and since there was not a single high school in that area, his big ambition was to open such a school.” To fulfill his father’s dreams, at 21, he contributed his time and effort to make the establishment of a high school possible. For next 17 years, he worked with the school before he quit the post of headmaster.
Amatya had a fixed mind till then; he had no other ideas except teaching until he was forced to re-evaluate his position in the face of growing political interference. “Politics damaged the whole environment of the school and I was so let down that I decided to give up the profession entirely,” he says.
And that decision was the turning point in his life.
“After that, I shifted my profession to agriculture. With two other friends, we leased a government plot of 46 ropanis at Balambu and decided to operate an agricultural farm,” he says.
Many people who knew him and his family members and his past profession were not just shocked to see him working on the fields but also started backbiting. “Have you gone crazy? Why are you wasting your education?” were some of the comments he heard from them. But that did not deter his confidence.
“I was sure that something good was to come from his venture. I told them that they would see the differences in agriculture done by an educated man,” he says. But the venture did not go as he had planned; in one year, their total investment of Rs 140,000 went down the hill.
After the failure of the project, his friends expressed their wish to discontinue. But there were four more years for the lease to expire. “I had no option, I continued on my own,” he says. With a year of experience and desperation to survive and succeed anyhow, he started to sow some unconventional products such as mushroom and strawberries in his field.
“I was glad that like I had believed when I started the farm, my education, after all, did help me,” he says. Though he lost money for another yea, the situation improved after that. He also made dealings with five-star hotels in the capital to supply them with his products.
But just when everything was fitting in together, he had to discontinue the work due to his health problems. After his contract at Balambu expired, it took him two years to recover from his ill health.
The techniques he used and knowledge he acquired about plants and fruits while working on the farm were, nonetheless, of great help for establishing his own company later.
And Amatya was not the person to get frustrated easily. After his failed attempt at the farm, he again partnered with his friends to establish a lapsi candy factory. “From the beginning, our focus was at quality, hygiene and new technologies. We even showcased our products at an international fair in Delhi where the customers really appreciated our products. But we again failed at the practical implications,” he says.
Amatya elaborates that though their products were the best, they had completely overlooked the management part. They had neglected the simple profit-and-loss calculations and were only focused on extensive research and quality of the products. “Due to which, again we had to lose all our investment in two years,” he says.
After facing failures in several ventures, Amatya concluded that partnership was not his forte, and so he started on his own. With his educational background about different plants, fruits and their techniques to bring out different products from them, and his acquired knowledge about the know-how of the business, he was ready to set on his own. And for more than a decade now, he has tasted success.
The fruit master, who has experimented with almost every kind of fruit available in the Valley, emphasizes that quality and credibility are his main business guidelines. “It takes a lot of time to earn customers’ trust but half a second to break it,” he says. He adds that the basic factors he takes care of in his products are hygiene and avoiding artificial flavors.
“Preservatives not only kill the microorganisms inside the bottle but it also gradually affects health. So I’m strongly against using it,” he says, adding that, however, lack of knowledge on the customer’s part about its ill-effects prevents them from choosing the right ones.
It is not only his natural manufacturing methods that make his products prominent from other Nepali products but his large range of collection and innovative concepts for producing jam, juices and candies are also commendable. Strawberry-lapsi candies, dried tomato in olive oil, ginger jam, mango pulp are some of his products that are sure to impress any health-conscious person.
Though slow and steady, Amatya is now happy with how his business is performing. It is only due to his passion to bring out the finest products that keeps him awake and working till the wee hours without any complaints. In contrast, he credits his work pressure for keeping him young at heart even at 68.
“It took a lot of hard work and patience to establish this business but when I look back now, there are no regrets for me,” he says. He is happy that he took risks in his life and he is satisfied with how his life has turned out now.
Now he has various outlets where he delivers his products to be sold. He also showcases his products in the Farmer’s Market hosted by 1905 Restaurant, Summit Hotel and New Orleans Café, among others. Apart from that, he also delivers according to the direct orders placed by his customers.
Though he has a good business at hand, he is distraught by the attitude of other businesspeople who, instead of promoting Nepali products, are only focused on their share of commission. “There’s no help from the departmental stores or other outlets and there’s definitely no feeling of ownership to the Nepali products,” he says.
However, he still believes that if the quality of the products is not compromised, there’s no way that it will not be noticed. He says that his advice to the new generations is to be true with your products and business before diving into the competition. “Today’s young people’s attitude is to gain profit as soon as possible and get depressed when that doesn’t happen. But all you need is patience and determination,” he says.
Amatya is one true example of determination and high spirit. Regardless of the numerous difficulties, he succeeded in his venture though it took him longer than he anticipated. He also stands as a symbol for all the educated youth in the country who complains about unemployment and lack of possibilities in Nepal. “What I am doing is only a small fraction of what can be done here,” assures Amatya.
mail2asmita@gmail.com
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