Grain Moisture Meter

China and India are Nepal’s two biggest trading partners in terms of imports, with them providing 9.4% and 63.6% respectively (“Nepal,” 2015a). With imports of this magnitude there is likely already transportation systems developed to move products from country to country. Therefore, the costs of shipping would be lower. In addition, both of these countries are known for producing products at lower prices, this means that moisture detectors from these countries would be more affordable to the Nepalese consumer.

The cost of Shimana’s product is extremely high when compared to other similar products. There are many moisture meters for sale through Alibaba for a fraction of the price, three of which are the Vetus tester, the Hedao and the MD7822 tester. All of these follow the same probe design as Shimana’s detector. The Vetus tester is able to test wheat, maize, rice and paddy, and comes at a price of $62-70 USD (“Alibaba,” 2015). The Hedao tester works with barely, corn, hay, oats, rapeseed, rice, sorghum, soybeans and wheat, and only costs $ 42-48 USD (“Alibaba,” 2015). Finally, the MD7822 tester is the cheapest only costing $20-30 USD and is able to test wheat, paddy, rice and corn (“Alibaba,” 2015). These detectors do not have the same breadth of testing capability as the Shimana model, but the prices are much more viable to the average consumer in Nepal.