Back to news
17 Mar 2017 | Himalica

Brand HIMALICA – Green Products from the Mountains soft-launched at the Sixth Nepal International Trade Fair

2 mins Read

70% Complete

Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal inaugurated the Sixth Nepal International Trade Fair in Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu, Nepal, on 16 March 2017. Among other stalls, the PM visited a booth set up by the Support to Rural Livelihoods and Climate change Adaptation in the Himalaya (Himalica) initiative.

SABAH Nepal President Sristi Joshi Malla briefed the PM about brand HIMALICA – Green Products from the Mountains, and presented him a gift pack of HIMALICA cardamom value added products. SABAH Nepal has begun marketing vegetables and large cardamom based products under the new HIMALICA brand with technical support from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the Environment Conservation and Development Forum (ECDF) and the Center for Environmental and Agricultural Policy Research, Extension and Development (CEAPRED).

Yubak Dhoj GC, Secretary, Ministry of Livestock Development, formally opened the Himalica booth to mark the soft launch of brand HIMALICA – Green Products from the Mountains. He lit a candle, watered the cardamom plants, and unwrapped packages containing cardamom-based products such as cardamom tea, cardamom biryani masala, cardamom powder, cardamom pods, and accessories made from cardamom fibres to mark the launch.

Yubak Dhoj GC, Secretary at the Ministry of Livestock Development, soft launches the HIMALICA brand “Green Products from the Mountains” at the 6th Nepal Int’l Trade Fair!
Photo credit: Jitendra Bajrachaya/ICIMOD

Dhrupad Choudhury, Regional Programme Manager of the Adaptation to Change Programme at ICIMOD and Surendra Raj Joshi, Himalica Programme Coordinator, briefed the Secretary about brand HIMALICA. They discussed its role in contributing to the resilience of poor and vulnerable mountain communities of the Hindu Kush Himalaya by linking their niche, value-added products and services to mainstream marketplaces under the Himalica programme.

Robin Amatya, SABAH Nepal CEO, said the objective of the soft launch was to educate consumers about climate-smart agricultural practices and technologies in the value chain development of products based on large cardamom and vegetables, as well as to pull in consumers by demonstrating their quality and health benefits. He said the fair, organized by the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI), was an opportunity to set up institutional ties with visitors and buyers from other countries – India, China, Bangladesh, Korea, Japan, Germany, Israel, the European Union, and the United States.

The Himalica booth, managed by SABAH Nepal, showcased value added products such as cardamom pods and tea bags, and beautifully designed bags and purses made from cardamom fibre from Taplejung. There were also fresh vegetables – cauliflower, cabbage, radish, carrot, coriander, beans, potato, capsicum, tomato, lemon etc. – from Udayapur. Other SABAH Nepal products such as turmeric, beans, gundhruk, rice, lentils, and herbal soaps were on display as well. The SABAH Nepal team also gave a live cardamom tea making demonstration and offered the drink to visitors to the booth.

HIMALICA booth promoting Geen Products from the Mountains
Photo credit: Jitendra Bajrachaya/ICIMOD

The HIMALICA brand came out of the Himalica programme funded by the European Union and managed by ICIMOD. Currently, SABAH Nepal is only marketing fresh vegetables from Udayapur and large cardamom-based products from Taplejung. In the near future, it plans to market more value-added niche mountain products and services from Himalica pilot project sites in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan, and later expand to cover the entire Hindu Kush Himalaya.

Stay current

Stay up to date on what’s happening around the HKH with our most recent publications and find out how you can help by subscribing to our mailing list.

Sign Up

Related Content

Continue exploring this topic

10 Jun 2018 HI-LIFE
HILIFE team conducts ethnobotanical study in nine villages in Myanmar

The study was conducted with a joint team from the Forest Department (FD) under the Ministry of Natural Resources and ...

11 Jul 2016 News
Landslide Dam Assessment in Chin State, Myanmar

A team of scientists recently visited the landslide dam in Chin State, Myanmar to assess the risk associated with the ...

9 Jul 2019 HIMAP
Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment Discussed at 2019 UN High-Level Political Forum

The Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations in New York and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development ...

E-Paath and E-Paathshala classes for brick workers’ children at Dhading school

Brick workers, both women and men, face numerous vulnerabilities without any form of social protection. The seasonal migration that this ...

13 Oct 2015 News
Let the Music Play on

  ICIMOD has band of very accomplished musicians who play theme songs or regional songs. It is blessed with great capacity ...

23 Jun 2016 News
Cryosphere Data Release

Open access to high-elevation meteorological data and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) data from the Himalayas Meteorological data is scarce in high-elevation ...

Reflections on the Training Workshop on GIS/RS

Bhakta Bahadur Karki, an Advisor-Knowledge Management and Communication who works with the High Value Agriculture Project (HVAP) project took part ...

3 Jul 2017 Cryosphere
Building Capacity on Database Management in Bhutan

Namgyal was introduced to data, data types, data format, database structure, MODIS snow data, and database management. He also learned ...