Neten Dorji

Trashiyangtse—Spread across one and a half acres in Bayling, Trashiyangtse, Karma Zangmo’s hazelnut orchard refused to bear fruits for more than six years. The initial hope soon turned into disappointment, and then despair.

But a transformative grafting programme has breathed new life into her farm. After polliniser trees were grafted, her hazelnut trees started flowering and bearing fruits. 

“Before last year, I managed to harvest around 20 kilogrammes of hazelnuts,” Karma Zangmo said. “This year, the trees are flourishing even more. With the grafting of polliniser trees, my orchard is finally starting to yield a decent harvest.”

She said that the yield is increasing every year as the hazelnut trees mature.

Karma’s story is not unique. Across Bhutan, farmers like her are witnessing a hazelnut renaissance of some sort – thanks to a large-scale grafting initiative that began in February 2019.

Another hazelnut grower, Dechen Zangmo, planted more than 600 hazelnut trees in one acre of land. She was frustrated when initially many trees failed to bear fruit, and those that did had sparse yields. “But after the grafting, the previously barren trees are now producing nuts, and the quality has greatly improved,” she said.

The grafting programme introduced a variety of polliniser trees—Halli’s Giant, Theta, Jefferson, and Butler—specially selected to address pollination challenges.

More than 2,362 orchards were grafted across 18 dzongkhags with the aim to increase nut production by providing orchards with suitable polliniser varieties.

Of these, 2,025 orchards were converted to existing production with new varieties requiring low chill hours below an altitude of 2,400 metres above sea level. About 318 orchards were added to an existing production variety above 2,400 metres sea level, and 19 orchards were grafted with scion wood.

Over the past five years, Mountain Hazelnuts has harvested 21.15 metric tonnes of hazelnuts.

Today, there are 8,298 growers, including two community hazelnut growers—one in Trashigang and another in Mongar. Trashigang Dzongkhag has the highest number of growers with 1,445, followed by 1,031 growers in Mongar and 642 in Samdrupjongkhar.

The chief executive officer of Mountain Hazelnuts, Dr Sean Watson, said that nut production has been confirmed through more than a decade of the company’s work in Bhutan and multiple independent expert assessments.

“The evidence can now be seen on the ground, with the variety mix fruiting well in well-managed orchards,” he said. “This success needs to be built upon, but we believe it is just a matter of time and some additional work by growers and the company.”

He added that another strength of the project is that while production issues are being resolved, international markets for hazelnuts are large and stable.  “Hazelnut is a crop that suits remote communities, being low volume, high value, and non-perishable. With appropriate certification and branding, we will be able to secure a price premium that will encourage and support a thriving, sustainable value chain.”

The company has also introduced a profit-sharing system, distributing 10 percent of profits to growers who have participated in the grafting programmes. This mechanism ensures growers receive a share of the company’s profits, in addition to the company’s commitment to increase hazelnut purchase prices over the next few years.

The company is also working on obtaining Rainforest Alliance Certification to support higher nut prices and explore carbon markets to provide additional revenue streams for growers from the sale of carbon credits.

Mountain Hazelnuts has invested over USD 30 million in developing the hazelnut value chain in the country. The company has also secured an additional USD 7 million to invest in the value chain to support growers and the factory in becoming cash flow positive by 2029.

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