Hazelnuts in Bhutan: a unique Himalayan project that empowers our local communities

A major reason for traveling to a new country is to experience the local food it offers. It’s true when they say the way to a person’s heart is through their stomach. There is a special nut that’s cultivated in Bhutan. We have all consumed it as a snack, a chocolate-based confectionery, in baking, and as a spread. Hazelnuts are extensively located in the Bhutanese Kingdom and are an all-time favorite. After all, Bhutan is every cultivator’s paradise. Let’s have a look at a special venture that supports and empowers local communities.

Mountain Hazlenuts is an impact enterprise working with over 8,000 smallholder farming households and community groups throughout the Kingdom of Bhutan to generate long-term income, revitalize vulnerable communities, and enable sustainable land stewardship through the production of premium quality hazelnuts.

The company was founded as the Kingdom's first 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in a public-private-community partnership with the Royal Government of Bhutan, with the shared goal to address the key social, economic, and environmental challenges faced by the Kingdom’s rural mountain communities. Headquartered strategically in the east of the country to reduce the economic inequality between eastern and western Bhutan, the company now works with partners across 19 of Bhutan’s 20 districts.?

As a market-driven approach to restoring degraded landscapes and sequestering carbon, millions of hazelnuts have been planted in partnership with Bhutanese subsistence farming communities on the country's fallow and degraded mountain slopes. Their goal is to significantly increase the income of smallholder households - alleviating rural poverty, slowing rural-to-urban migration, and helping in keeping Bhutan’s rich cultural heritage vibrant. Minimizing erosion improves water quality, helping to restore rivers and streams. Pruned branches from orchards provide a valuable source of firewood, reducing pressures on natural forests. A one-acre orchard is said to provide about one tonne of firewood annually!

What are the hurdles?

?Effects of Climate Change on MH Operations and Climate Adaptation Investment

The Company's primary operational hurdle is the long-term sustainability of their low altitude orchards (below 2,400 meters), which are not performing optimally due to climate change-related factors, unable to consistently reach commercial yields without conversion. In 2022 the Company began an orchard ‘climate adaptation’ conversion program, converting 600 acres through grafting new more climate resilient varieties, with promising initial results. They plan to convert a total of 4,000 acres over the next four years alongside new plantings of 3,100 acres with the new variety mix.

This orchard conversion is a significant climate adaptation investment for the country, and its success is fundamental to the future of the company and Bhutan’s hazelnut industry.

Innovations in regenerative agriculture:

Mountain Hazelnuts, with technical assistance from international experts, uses technological and scientific innovations to tackle the challenges of producing a new crop in a rugged geography. The company has shared several tools and practices with other mission-oriented companies working around the world.

Traceability via Digital Data collection

To support its global supply chain, Mountain Hazelnuts has developed an Android-based Remote Monitoring and Traceability system for digital reporting, called Field Companion.?From the cultivation of plantlets through the shipment of export products, hazelnuts are tracked at each step of the process. End consumers are able to see detailed information regarding the nuts they eat, ensuring a rare degree of traceability and transparency. The Field Companion application is essential for monitoring thousands of geographically dispersed orchards, where real-time operational reporting is required for functions ranging from verifying land suitability to monitoring tree care to evaluating social and environmental impact. This sophisticated data collection system links local farmers to operational headquarters, enabling intervention from experts as necessary and the promulgation of best practices, while aggregating data for pattern analysis.

Grafting and Pollination

To improve orchard productivity through enhanced pollination and climate resilience, Mountain Hazelnuts has successfully completed major grafting programs across Bhutan. The scope and scale of these programs is among the largest and most complex ever undertaken, involving the selection and importation of scion wood from complementary hazelnut varieties from mature orchards in different parts of the world.

Supporting Local Entrepreneurs

The Loden Foundation is a CSO in Bhutan with a mission to foster an enlightened and happy society through promotion of education, social entrepreneurship, and Bhutan's tradition and culture. Loden and Mountain Hazelnuts have jointly established a funding program, the Loden Hazelnut Program, dedicated to supporting new ventures along the hazelnut value chain, thereby contributing to the stimulation of entrepreneurship across Bhutan. The program specifically targets female entrepreneurs to improve their access to development finance.

Together they are currently working with two local entrepreneurs, creating local products 1) Madam Kinley Pelden at Yiga Chocolates , producing local hazelnut chocolates, and 2) Madam Chimi Wangmo at Bhutan Growers , producing a local hazelnut oil.

?So while visiting Bhutan, you know what unique souvenir to carry back!

To learn more and support their work, visit www.mountainhazelnuts.com , or email: [email protected] .