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Sourcing

Where it comes from, and what it costs

The Shree Dhaulagiri dairy and tea co-operative, Myagdi district, Nepal. 61 households, two products, one hillside between 1,850 and 2,300 metres. Here is the whole chain, and the arithmetic.

Latest lotLot 04 · Spring 2026Picked 6–16 April · landed Rotterdam 2 June · lab report on file

Six hands, start to doorstep

  1. 01

    61 households milk the herds

    Yak in the high pasture, cow lower down. Milk is pooled at the co-op shed twice a day.

  2. 02

    Pressed and smoked the same week

    Curdled with lime, pressed under stone weights, smoked over pine for two nights.

  3. 03

    Ten weeks on the drying racks

    Unheated, open air. The bars lose 60 % of their weight and gain their hardness.

  4. 04

    Graded, cut and weighed

    Sorted into four dog-weight sizes by hand. Offcuts become the puff bites.

  5. 05

    One container, Kolkata to Rotterdam

    31 days at sea. Sealed after the first lab report clears.

  6. 06

    Picked and posted in Rotterdam

    Kraft sleeve, paper tape, tracked EU parcel. Dispatched within 48 hours of your order.

The dairy shed, the drying racks and the hillside
Shree Dhaulagiri co-operative, 2,100 m. Photographed April 2026.

Where €17.00 goes

One Large Yak Chew Bar, spring 2026, shipped to the Netherlands. Every line rounded to the cent.

The long version
To the co-op: milk, labour, pressing38 %€6.46
Nepal-side drying, grading, packing8 %€1.36
Sea freight, duty, customs agent11 %€1.79
Rotterdam warehousing and picking7 %€1.11
EU parcel delivery13 %€2.28
Payment fees (Stripe)3 %€0.48
ShannX: wages, rent, everything else21 %€3.52
Retail price€17.00

Every lot, tested twice

Once in Kathmandu before the container is sealed, once in Rotterdam before the pallet is broken. If a line fails, the lot does not go on sale.

Request the certificates
Lead, cadmium, arsenicICP-MS, both labsNot detected
Pesticide screenGC-MS/MS, 412 compounds< LOQ
SalmonellaISO 6579Absent / 25 g
ListeriaISO 11290Absent / 25 g
MoistureTarget below 10 %8.4 %
Aflatoxin B1HPLC, tea lots only< 0.1 µg/kg

One container a season, by sea

Kolkata to Rotterdam takes 31 days and costs us the ability to react to a stock-out. It also cuts the freight emissions per kilo by about 92 % against air.

  1. Origin

    Myagdi

    Truck to Pokhara, 7 hours of switchbacks.

  2. Consolidation

    Kathmandu

    First lab report. Container sealed.

  3. Port

    Kolkata

    Rail, then loaded. Two days in the yard.

  4. Sea

    31 days

    Suez routing when it is open, Cape when it is not.

  5. Arrival

    Rotterdam

    Second lab report before the pallet is broken.