Billing for your organic store, from the farmer's sack to the 100-gram bag
Bought by the quintal, sold by the gram, and paid to a farmer group that has its own page.
Quintals in, grams out, and the question of where it came from
Bought by the quintal from a farmer, sold by the hundred grams at the counter
In 2021 Chhattisgarh launched a Millet Mission, declaring a support price of Rs 3,000 per quintal for kodo-kutki and buying kodo, kutki and ragi from farmers. A shop that buys millets direct from a farmer or a group thinks in quintals and sacks, and its customer thinks in a small bag. Between the two, somebody has to turn a sack into hundreds of small sales, and know how much of the sack is left. A shop in a town far from the millet fields may see the sack only once in a season. Nobody in the village knows the weight of a sack by looking, and neither does the shop's boy.
Many small farmers, each with a few kilos, each to be paid
An organic store does not buy from one dealer. It buys a few kilos of honey from one family, jaggery from a group, a sack of pulses from a third. Each is paid in a different way and on a different day, and the shop owner keeps the whole list in his head or in a diary with a rubber band round it. A woman who brings honey on market day wants to be paid before she goes home.
Some goods come once a year in one lot
Millets, jaggery and a few oils and teas come from the farmers once in a season, in a lot that is all there will be until the next year. The shop that sells the lot slowly sees it end in a month, and the shop that sells it fast is out before the season turns. Nobody tells the owner which of the two he is until the shelf is empty. A regular customer who asks for the oil in March and finds it gone until next winter will say so to her neighbours.
_in_Chandigarh.jpg){kind=link}
A shop that buys from farmers and sells by the pinch
A support price fixes what the farmer gets; the shelf sets the rest
When the state buys kodo-kutki at a support price of Rs 3,000 per quintal, the farmer's rate is fixed before the grain reaches you. Note each delivery with its weight, set your own rate for the counter, and read the days' sales against it. In a few weeks you see whether the neighbourhood pays enough for the grain to leave you a gain.
The best of a lot is sold by the gram
Pabhojan Gold, an organic tea from Golaghat district in Assam, sold for Rs 99,999 per kg at a special Jorhat Tea Auction Centre auction on International Tea Day. Few shops sell a lot like that, but many have a tea, a spice or an oil that is sold by the gram. Put it in as an item counted in kilos, and the bill takes off exactly the weight you put on the scale. A shop does not need a Jorhat price to have its best lot: it only needs to know how much of it is left.
Jaggery in the cold months, oils and teas all year
Jaggery sells best in the cold months, and some oils and teas sell all the year. A shop that stocks all three in the same quantity is full of jaggery in March and short of it in December. Plan the jaggery to come before the cold, and keep the oils and teas steady through the year.
Farmer groups moving from the local mandi to their own market
Tools for a shop of sacks, jars and farmer groups
Orders to suppliers
The order to the millet farmers in the season they sell and to the tea garden in the month it sends, with each lot noted when it arrives. A farmer group that knows when the shop will need the next lot plans its harvest better.
Godown stock
A godown near the mandi for the sacks and the shop for the jars, each with its own count of what came in.
Low stock warnings
A warning when the last of a seasonal lot is nearly gone, so you know there is no more until next year and can tell the customer in time.
Questions an organic shopkeeper asks about weights, farmers and baskets
I tie a festival basket of honey, jaggery and tea. How do the three come off the stock?
Put the three on one bill as three lines, each with its own weight and rate. Each line takes its own count down, so the honey jar and the jaggery are not mixed up in the basket's price.
A farmer's lot arrives and I take only part of it. What do I note?
Note on the farmer's page the weight you took, with the day. The stock goes up by that weight and no more, so the shelf count and the sum you pay him come from the same number.
A farmer group asks how much of the next lot I will want. Where do I look?
Give the group a number that is yours, and not the number it suggests. Read the kilos you sold of its last lot and how fast they went, say what you will want, and promise to take that much and no more.
Honey and oil come packed in different months. How do I keep old jars apart from new?
Make each packing its own item, with the packing month in its name, like Honey, October pack. Each item has its own stock, so the older jars are easy to see and sell first.
A coconut oil from Nancowry and a kiwi from the hills
In August 2025 women's self-help groups at Nancowry in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands launched NiCoShe virgin coconut oil, made by the Nicobari extraction method that recently earned a Geographical Indication certificate.
Arunachal Pradesh was the first state to receive organic kiwi certification.