A Year-Round Ordering Calendar for Nepal: Every Window, Mapped

Every August our desk fields the same call: a Kathmandu buyer who has just realised Dashain is six weeks away and his stock is not even on a loom. Every year we tell him the same thing. The calendar was published centuries ago; only the ordering discipline is new. This is that discipline, written down once so nobody has to learn it the expensive way.

How to Read This Nepal Ordering Calendar

The arithmetic behind every date below is simple. Custom weaving, dyeing or embroidery runs six to ten weeks in production. Stock-supported programmes, where the mill already holds the construction, move in two to three weeks to dispatch. Road transit from Surat to the border gate runs three to six days, with Birgunj-Raxaul the busiest crossing, followed by clearance and onward carriage. Add it up and an order-by date is a shelf date minus eight to ten weeks for custom work, four to five for stock lines.

A Nepal ordering calendar only works if the order-by date is treated as the production start date. Every week of delay after that point comes directly out of the selling window at the far end.

January to April: Weddings, Losar and the School Cycle

The year opens with the wedding season still running from November. Replenishment for wedding counters, silks, lehengas and heavy suits, moves through January into February. Meanwhile the Losar window lands in February for Boudha and Jawlakhel, which means that stock was ordered in November and landed by mid-January; if you are reading this section in January, that truck has already gone.

March and April belong to the institutional trade. School contracts are confirmed from January, and uniform fabric needs to be on cutting tables by March for the academic year that begins around mid-April. The same weeks ramp the tourist counters back up: Thamel and Lakeside want their March-April season stock landed by late February, light cottons and statement pieces for the second trekking window.

May to July: The Quiet Quarter With One Trap

The monsoon builds through June and retail thins everywhere except the rain-gear trade. This is the quarter buyers waste. The smart ones use it for development: autumn festival programmes sampled, colourways approved, and Dashain lines booked onto looms before the rush, because loom capacity is the first thing to disappear in July.

Sithi Nakha in May-June gives valley retail a small Newari window for light cottons, modest but uncontested. Order summer stock by April for the hot dry weeks of April-May, and treat June-July as the last sane moment to confirm custom Dashain work. The trap in this quarter is the belief that there is time. There is not.

August to October: The Quarter That Pays for the Year

Teej opens it, in August or September depending on the lunar calendar, and it is a women's festival with sarees at the centre of it. Teej stock must land by early August, which means the order left Surat in June or early July at the latest.

Dashain, September-October, is the deepest selling window in Nepal, full stop. Depth should land by early September, which places custom orders in July and stock-programme orders in early August. Indra Jatra in September gives valley counters their own opening week before the national rush. Tihar follows in October-November as the gifting festival: kurtis, kids ethnic and gift-adjacent sets, landing by early October. Chhath, strongest in the eastern Terai around Biratnagar, Itahari and Dharan, extends the season for sarees and suits, with eastern lots routed through Biratnagar-Jogmani or Kakarbhitta-Panitanki.

One honest admission about this quarter: the compression breaks even good planners. The strongest desks pick the two windows they absolutely will not miss, usually Dashain and one of Teej or Tihar, and protect those order-by dates with their lives. Everything else is managed, not guaranteed.

November to December: Weddings, Winter and Losar Prep

Tihar closes the festival year and the wedding season opens immediately, running November through February. Heavy silks, lehengas, velvet and mens ethnic move on replenishment logic through these months, and winter woollens, shawls and pashmina-adjacent wraps carry retail and tourist counters alike.

The quiet mission of these months is Losar. Tibetan-community stock for Boudha and Jawlakhel must be on shelves by mid-January, so orders leave Surat in November and early December, riding the same trucks as wedding-season freight. Yomari Punhi in December gives valley retail a small post-harvest window for wraps and gifting pieces. November consolidation, wedding plus winter plus Losar cartons on one truck, is the second-largest load-planning exercise of our year after August.

The Discipline That Holds a Year-Round Plan Together

Year-round stock planning in Nepal is less a spreadsheet than a set of habits. Pin the calendar where the buying decisions happen. Treat order-by dates as production start dates, not reminders. Consolidate trucks by window so freight per piece stays honest across the year. Keep a festival-calendar reference with the lunar drift noted, because Teej moves and a fixed-date plan will lie to you once a year. And hold one slack week in every plan that must land before Dashain, because the border does not negotiate with optimism.

Ethnic wear buying calendars fail in the same place every time: the quarter that looks quiet and the festival that arrives while stock is still in production. The map above is the defence. Use it.

Ajmera Export: Your Trusted Ordering Calendar Partner

We are a Surat-based manufacturer-exporter of ethnic wear and fashion fabric, and our desk plans Nepal programmes backwards from shelf dates, not forward from dispatch dates. We run the full year of windows: Teej saree programmes, Dashain depth, Tihar gifting stock, Chhath lots routed to the eastern Terai, wedding-season replenishment through the winter, Losar cartons for Boudha and Jawlakhel, and uniform fabric timed to March cutting tables. Our production calendar is booked with the lunar drift in mind, our trucks consolidate by window through Birgunj-Raxaul and the eastern gates, and the Certificate of Origin under the Indo-Nepal Treaty of Trade travels with every consignment. Pricing is enquiry-only, quoted against programme volumes. Send us the windows you cannot afford to miss, and we will map the order-by dates with you.

Why Businesses Choose Ajmera Export

• Order-by-date discipline: every programme anchored to a shelf date, not a dispatch date
• Windows protected: the two must-hit festivals on your list treated as immovable
• Flexible lot sizes: depth for Dashain, rotation lots for the quiet quarter
• Surat looms, dyeing and embroidery seen in person

Frequently Asked Questions

When should I order stock for Dashain in Nepal?

Dashain falls in September-October and is the deepest selling window of the year. Custom weaving, dyeing or embroidery should be ordered by July, and stock-supported programmes by early August, so depth lands on shelves by early September. Late-landing Dashain stock sells at clearance, which is why the order-by date matters more than the buy itself.

What is the ordering calendar for Teej saree stock?

Teej lands in August or September depending on the lunar calendar and is strongly saree-driven. Stock must be on shelves by early August, which places custom orders in June to early July and stock-programme orders in May-June. Because the date drifts year to year, track the lunar calendar rather than a fixed month.

When do I need to order for Tihar and Chhath?

Tihar gift stock, kurtis, kids ethnic and gifting sets, should land by early October. Chhath, strongest in the eastern Terai around Biratnagar, Itahari and Dharan, needs saree and suit stock landed before its window in October-November, with eastern lots routed through Biratnagar-Jogmani or Kakarbhitta-Panitanki for faster delivery.

When should Losar stock be ordered and landed?

Losar falls in February, and Tibetan-community retail in Boudha and Jawlakhel buys in the weeks before it. Stock must be on shelves by mid-January, so orders leave Surat in November to early December, riding the same consolidated trucks as wedding-season freight. Missing that landing means the counter waits a full year.

When is school uniform fabric ordered in Nepal?

The academic year begins around mid-April, with admissions running February to April. Dealers confirm school contracts from January, and fabric must be on cutting tables by March. A second, smaller wave comes with the winter-uniform switch around October-November, plus mid-year top-ups that must match the original dye-lot.

How long does production and shipping from Surat to Nepal take?

Custom weaving, dyeing or embroidery runs six to ten weeks in production; stock-supported programmes dispatch in two to three weeks. Road transit from Surat to the border runs three to six days, plus clearance and onward carriage. Working backwards, custom orders need eight to ten weeks of runway before the shelf date.

What should I order during the monsoon months?

Use June to August for development rather than panic buying: approve autumn colourways, sample festival programmes, and book Dashain production before loom capacity tightens in July. Light summer cottons ordered by April cover the hot weeks, and a small Newari window, Sithi Nakha in May-June, rewards shops that hold valley stock.

When does wedding season stock get ordered?

The wedding season runs November through February, opening right after Tihar. Initial depth should be ordered in September-October to land by early November, with replenishment moving steadily through the season on the land route's short transit. Heavy silks, lehengas and velvet programmes need the longer custom production window.

How do I plan a year-round stock calendar for my shop?

Map every window, Teej, Dashain, Tihar, Chhath, weddings, Losar, school cycles and tourist seasons, then write an order-by date against each, eight to ten weeks ahead for custom work and four to five for stock lines. Treat those dates as production start dates, consolidate trucks by window, and keep the lunar drift in view.

How can Ajmera Export help plan my ordering calendar?

Send us the windows you cannot afford to miss and your rough programme volumes. We map order-by dates backwards from your shelf dates across the full Nepal year, book production ahead of the rush, and consolidate trucks by window. Pricing is enquiry-only, and the planning conversation costs nothing.

Conclusion

The Nepal buying year is knowable in advance: every window, every drift, every order-by date sits on this page. The shops that win are not the ones with better taste or better terms; they are the ones whose stock is already on the shelf when the window opens. If you want a desk that plans your year backwards from your shelf dates, message us on WhatsApp with your must-hit windows, or send the enquiry form. We will start with the calendar, because everything else follows it.