Bringing Korea’s prosperity to Nepal

This is the 60th episode of Diaspora Diaries, a Nepali Times series in collaboration with Migration Lab providing a platform to share experiences of living, working, studying abroad.

Dil Bahadur Tamang

I come from a middle-class family, and my father did all he could to make sure we had a proper education. I really wanted to be an engineer, but was not that good in studies and my father could not afford to pay for college. So I joined Korean language classes instead.

In Korea, I was blown away by the infrastructure and development. But once I entered my company premises, it was a different story. It was a smelly place with piles of trash. 

This was not the standard ‘foreign company’ of my imagination. I had been placed with a plastic recycling company, and worked three years there before it went bankrupt. I switched to a welding company.

Korea taught me the value of work and time, and more importantly, just how much of a difference being within a system can make.  

Prabin Shrestha

I randomly came across an acquaintance who was a Korea returnee and jokingly told him that I also wanted to go. He talked about a new Government-to-Government (G2G) scheme called EPS, and told me I should give it a shot. It would be cheaper and more rewarding, but I had to pass a language test.

My first job in Korea was drying animal leather, but a year later I moved to a plastic company before returning to Nepal to start my own plastic manufacturing venture with Shahadev. 

Despite having skills and experience, I quickly realised that it was difficult to remain competitive with 18 hours of daily power cuts. We were afraid of losing our hard earned money. 

So Shahadev and I decided to remigrate and joined our previous company in Korea. This time, the thought of “नेपाल गएर के गर्ने?” kept gnawing at me. The skills and experience I acquired in Korea were not usable back home, where my heart was.  

I used to go to a meat shop nearby, where the shopkeeper, an elderly woman, was nice to me. We used to chat, and I wondered if I could start something similar in Nepal: a well-organised meat shop. 

My friend and I started applying for jobs in the meat sector. We wanted to work at a pig farm, but got jobs in a meat processing plant.

Shahadev Gurung

We were the first lot that went to Korea under the EPS scheme. Korea had a good image in our community, a place where young Nepalis could make something of themselves. 

Prabin and I went on the same flight, we worked in the same plastic company, and changed to the same meat processing company. We thought it would be easy, and would be simply cutting meat like we did back home. But there everything had to be cut just right. It was a new experience and initially felt complicated.

Read also: Meat, money, and the middle class

Prabin Shrestha

Our employer told us that he had started with nothing, and made a lot of money selling meat. With just a knife and focus on hygiene, you can do a lot if you put your mind to it, he used to tell us. 

It was like surgery. Every part mattered. Knowing that these skills could be an investment back home, we were keen to learn everything about cutting meat perfectly. 

After work, we used to take home the bones to assemble a skeleton so we could learn about all the parts. We would memorise the names and familiarise ourselves with the right angle of the knife to slice them with. We were so obsessed we learnt in 2.5 months what took others six months. Our employer gave us raises.

Dil Bahadur Tamang

After we returned to Nepal, we started Hankook Meat Mart. I have known my co-founder Prabin Shrestha for 25 years, he is like family to me. We studied together, went to Korea together.

Even before we left Nepal, we knew that we would one day run a business together. Returning from Korea, we studied the market for months before launching the business, visiting meat shops and talking to people. 

We learnt that oversupply of meat reduced the price and put quality farmers at a disadvantage. Even when we found cheaper suppliers, we set a floor price for our meat suppliers who were picked based on whether they fed the pigs proper feed and not waste, and if the animals were 6-8 months old. 

We also realised that pork meat parts are not separated but mashed together. Hygiene and quality also fluctuated. Consumers get good meat one day and the next day the same shop sold meat that was difficult even to chew. 

Imported meat was available, but costly. Our niche was going to be quality, premium meat.

Shahadev Gurung

The three of us work well together even after all these years. There is a strong trust between us. Each of us individually carry out our duties well. That I think is what has worked for us to help us endure this long partnership.

The skills we learnt in Korea have stayed with us, and we are still reaping the benefits. Current EPS workers engaged in the agriculture sector can benefit here as the skills can be used, but you have to be willing to work hard in Nepal just like you do overseas. 

You cannot slow down just because you are in Nepal. It is also helpful to think about your return while overseas, that makes transitioning to Nepal much easier.

Prabin Shrestha

Korea for me was like a university where I learnt a lot. When I came home, my suitcase was full of knives, aprons for meat processing. 

There are so many things that we can learn overseas, small things that would make our lives easier here. All I learnt was to cut meat. But we have created jobs for 30-40 people, while being close to family. We don’t have to dream very big.

I enjoy working in Nepal. I saw many cottage industries that started small in Korea that I found inspiring so we bring machines from Korea and run shops that  make rice cakes and kimchi. We are opening a new branch, and a small Korean restaurant. My former boss who visited us in Nepal is thrilled with our progress and even gifted us a meat slicer.

Read also: Overseas job-seeker now creates jobs in Nepal, Mahesh Sah

Working in Nepal is not always easy, of course, the trick is to try to find happiness even in those tough moments. That makes life easier.

This kind of hustle can scare some people and dissuade many but we have to build the appetite for it because one day, these experiences will become part of our story, our journey.