The annual trade in medicinal and aromatic plant products in South Asia is huge. This paper aims at contributing to the understanding of the South Asian medicinal and aromatic plant market by quantifying the volume and value of the annual trade of these plant products in and from Nepal. Field work was conducted from August 1998 to September 1999 and covered a set of 32 focal products. Emphasis was on including the products and species that were traded in the largest quantities and/or had a high unit value. General data as well as data for the case year 1997/98 were collected. Data were collected, using standardised open-ended interviews, through (i) a central wholesaler survey in Nepal interviewing 104 exporters of medicinal and aromatic plants, (ii) a regional wholesaler survey covering 53 wholesalers in India, (iii) an investigation of government export records to examine export to third countries, and (iv) a survey of 16 domestic production companies in Nepal. The annual total trade is estimated at 2400-9400 tonnes with a trade level in 1997/98 of 6254 tonnes. India is by far the dominant export destination; and there is very low domestic demand for raw plant materials in Nepal. The total cif export value is estimated at USD 3.2-12.8 million with a value of USD 8.1 million in 1997/98. The top five species are Nardostachys grandiflora, Swertia chirayita, Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora, Zanthoxylum armatum and Sapindus mukorossi; together they make up more than 52% of the total value. It is argued that the findings are conservative and that there may be scope for increasing the value of medicinal and aromatic plants to the Nepalese economy.=
