Metrotarkari.com, Nepal’s first and largest online grocer has received a considerable grant of Rupees 29.5 lakhs from the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MoAD). The award was provided under the Project for Agriculture Commercialization and Trade (PACT).
PACT is one of the critical projects in Nepal for expanding agricultural commercialization which commenced in 2009. The plan is implemented by the Government of Nepal (GoN) and the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MoAD) in association with the World Bank (WB). Under the PACT Metrotarkari has received this grant for conducting projects related to online marketing and promotion of vegetable items in Nepal.
After a rigorous evaluation, Metrotarkari was selected for the grant, and the company signed the MoU for the award six months ago. According to the MoU, PACT will be granting 30 % of the total project cost, i.e., approximately 29.5 lakhs to Metrotarkari. The details of the grant were made public during a public hearing program organized by the representatives of Metrotarkari on Sunday.
As per Karun Panta, Manager at Metrotarkari, the company had applied for the grant of Project for Agriculture Commercialization and Trade (PACT), a year ago under the topic of Online Marketing and Promotion of Vegetables in Nepal with a complete business plan. On the occasion of the hearing, Basudev Sharma, Senior Monitoring Officer at PACT, remarked Metrotarkari as one of the unique businesses of Nepal with a bright future. He also praised the company for being mentioned by TechinAsia on “25 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye”. According to Mr. Sharma, Metrotarkari has proved to fulfill all the required criteria of the grant through a rigorous evaluation process.
The hearing was attended by people from various sectors, including journalists, students, stakeholders, politicians, and farmers. The audience participated in a question and answer round where the representatives of Metrotarkari and PACT answered various queries regarding the grant such as the effective monitoring and evaluation of the project grant. Following the Q&A was an interactive program where the participants discussed the prospects of organic vegetable farming.