Billing for your organic and natural food store in Odisha
Loose weights, a women's group's jars and the farmer's name beside each one.
Tools for a counter of jars, loose weights and named farmers
Godown stock
A stock count for the godown where the harvest sacks wait and another for the shelf in front, so the sack opened this week is on the count.
Low stock warnings
A sign that the turmeric or the jaggery is running down well before the next harvest, so a late-asking family is told how much is left.
Offers for regular customers
A discount for the family that comes back after the harvest to buy its year's spices in one go.
Your own online shop
A page of the turmeric and jaggery on your shelf this month, so the city families who ask for them by name can see what is in stock before they write to you.
_Jaggery_Gud_Punjab_India.jpg){kind=link}
From the sack at harvest time to the grams at the counter in July
The turmeric noted in at harvest, and counted against the months to the next one
The turmeric comes in once a year and has to last until the next harvest. Note each sack in kilos as it arrives, and every sale takes its grams off. By June the phone shows what is left against the months still ahead. You know whether to lean on a rate or to look for a second farmer.
The family that buys its year of rice, jaggery and spices
After the harvest some families buy their year's rice, jaggery and spices in one visit and pay from the harvest money. Make one bill with each good on its own line, so the family reads its year at once, and the shop sees how much of the shelf one such visit takes.
Where did this come from? Answered from the farmer's page
A customer asks where the turmeric came from. Open the page of the farmer who brought it, and read the day, the kilos and the rate you wrote. The answer is on your phone and it is the same answer each time you are asked.
Leaf plates, prawns and silk: the districts behind Odisha's farm and forest goods
Natural goods in Odisha come from forests, farms and coasts. A few of the districts, and what the people there do.
- Sal and siali leaf plates are a main trade in Mayurbhanj, and Betanati in the district is one of Odisha's two main leaf plate trade centres (2008 report).
- Balasore district has been declared Odisha's production and processing cluster for scampi, the freshwater prawn.
- Berhampur in Ganjam is often called the silk city of India, and its Phoda Kumbha saree and Joda craft got a GI tag in 2012.
Why an Odisha natural food store counts a harvest it buys in a few months and sells all year
A crop bought in a few months has to last the whole year
Much of what you sell is harvested once a year and bought in a few months. A spice that sits until June has lost some of its smell, and a customer who liked the January jar finds a duller one and does not say why. You cannot tell her which month the sack came, because the day you bought it is not written where you can find it.
The women's group asks what sold, and the notebook cannot say
Pickles, papad and dried mushrooms come from a women's group in the next village, a few jars at a time, and the group is paid for what sells. When its leader asks at the end of the month how many jars went, you count what is left on the shelf and guess the rest. A wrong guess is money out of the group's pocket, or out of yours.
The farmer's name is on the sack, and not on the shelf
You bought one lot of chillies from one farmer and a second from another, and both now sit in jars on the shelf. A customer who liked the first one asks for it again, and you cannot tell her which jar it was. The farmer's name that sold the goods to you is gone by the third day.
The Farm's stalls and online shop, read from one place
Questions Odisha organic store owners ask
The women's group that fills my jars asks which jar to fill more of next month. What do I tell her?
Tell her from the month's sales of her jars: the kind that went most is the one to fill more of, and the kind that stayed on the shelf is filled less. She hears the shelf's number and fills her jars by it.
I buy Kandhamal turmeric from a cooperative in one month and from a farmer in another. Do they sit in one item?
No. Keep two items, one for the cooperative's turmeric and one for the farmer's, because you paid two different rates. Each item holds its own count, so one rate is never mixed into the other when you work out what a kilo cost you.
A customer wants her turmeric ground before she takes it home. Can the grinding go on the same bill?
Yes. Make grinding an item with its own rate and put it on her bill beside the turmeric. She pays for both on one bill, and the turmeric count still falls by what she took.
Kandhamal turmeric and the cooperative that buys it
Kandhamal's tribal farmers grow turmeric without fertiliser or pesticide. The organic turmeric got a GI tag on 1 April 2019 and is harvested from December to March, so a shop buys it in a few months and sells it through the year.
KASAM, a government-backed cooperative, buys Kandhamal turmeric from farmers. In 2021 it offered Rs 60 per kg while local traders paid Rs 35 to 40.