In the remotest and most hostile regions or Northern Pakistan, over two thousand of the country’s poorest farmers have been handed a lifeline in the form of Mountain Fruits Ltd, thanks to the passion and dedication of CEO Sher Ghazi. By Cosima Brand.

It’s winter time in Pakistan. The leaves have all turned golden, and everyone is wrapped up in shawls against the cold.

For the most part, Pakistan is still a country which eats with the seasons. Oranges and the brightest mandarins you’ll ever see are abundant in winter time, but can be had at no other time of year. Similarly the fresh apricots and peaches and mangoes that abound in summer are nowhere to be found in the winter time, unless of course in the dried variety.

Winter time is the time for dried fruits. Here in Pakistan the term ‘dried fruits’ covers everything from nuts and seeds to what we would term dried fruits – sundried apricots are the staple, but there are also mulberries, currants and other fruits which make their appearance in shops and in homes across the country. According to the Pakistani view of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ food types, dried fruits are extremely heating for the body, hence their appearance in winter time to help stave off the biting cold.

The most prized dried fruits come from the unspoiled landscapes of the Hunza Valley in the very northernmost tip of the country, where the pristine environment and the crystal clear glacial waters produces the very best apricots and nuts. Drying these fruits has been a traditional occupation for many farmers as a way to deal with the summer glut of fruit, and to try to turn a waste into a profit.

A number of years back, this centuries old industry in the Hunza Valley was under threat. Farmers and driers were simply not getting enough return to make the efforts of getting the produce to market worth their while. Their produce was selling in the bazaar for a meagre thirty-five Rupees per kilo. That is around forty-nine Australian cents per kilo of dried fruit.

Enter the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme and Sher Ghazi.

Sher Ghazi was born and raised in the Hunza Valley amidst the mountains and orchids he still works in today. As an agriculturalist and a graduate of Food Technologies, Sher always had an interest in re-investing his expertise into the country of his birth, and so joined the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) in 1990. The AKRSP has been working in the region and aiding and initiating development projects since 1982, however it has numerous other charitable projects running world-wide.

After working on several different projects with AKRSP in the region and seeing the potential of the traditional dried fruit industry, Sher Ghazi applied for and was granted project financing by the AKRSP to train the rural farmers in modern drying techniques which where safer, more hygienic and would moreover make the produce of an internationally marketable standard.

The training programmes focussed on improving the picking and drying methods of the farmers in order to both increase productivity and the marketability of the dried produce. They replaced the traditional wicker baskets with professional drying trays, of which over twenty thousand have been distributed since the project began. They were also able to utilise solar electric dryers in some regions, further improving the process. Because of these measures, Sher has been able to bring the amount of dried fruit produced from two hundred and seventy kilos when the project began to over one hundred tonnes of fruit with the capacity for much more in time.

In 1997 he secured the help of the UK-based Tropical Wholefoods who aided him with technical assistance and data management processes on the dried fruits project. Between this time and 2004 Sher and the farmers had formed an association of over two thousand farming families living in the region, built a modern processing facility that allowed fruits in a three hundred kilometre radius to be processed to high quality international standards and conducted numerous training programmes for the local farmers. The Mountain Areas Fruit Farmers’ Association, so the conglomeration was called is a democratically run organisation which not only produces the dried fruits and nuts, but also decides how the profits can be re-invested in the community.

Also in 2004 Sher Ghazi’s AKRSP Dried Fruits Project was renamed Mountain Fruits and registered as a dried fruits wholesaler. Mountain Fruits buys the produce from the famers and sells it to Tropical Wholefoods and other wholesalers on the international Fairtrade market.

Mountain Fruits continues to hold training programmes for the farming communities, and importantly has provided many training programmes for the local women. Mountain Fruits also provides seasonal work for around one hundred and fifty women from these farming families, which is not only a great source of additional income, but is the only organisation in the region offering work to these women and at the national standard wage rate.

The initial project, and the continuing efforts of Mountain Fruits has had an insurmountable affect on the rural and farming communities of the Hunza Valley. With the produce now selling for more than triple what they could get at the local bazaars to international Fairtrade buyers, the farmers are not only earning a decent wage, but have been able to invest in their communities as well. With the company’s intent always geared towards entering the Fairtrade markets they can now re-invest their Fairtrade premium back into community-building projects.

In 2005 the Mountain Areas Fruit Farmers’ Association received the first premiums and together with Mountain Fruits and with Sher’s advise they decided on a number of projects to invest in. Since then they have constructed three community schools, and contributed to the school fees of the poorest families’ children. They have also been able to construct a community hall, build proper irrigation for the fruit orchards, purchase sewing machines and cloth for a women’s vocational centre and computers for a community library. They were also able to distribute fruit drying trays and other farm equipment on interest-free credit to farmers.

In a 2007 interview with the Fairtrade Foundation, a key supporter of Mountain Fruits, Sher was adamant that the creation of the Mountain Areas Fruit Farmers’ Association and the support of foundations like AKRSP and the Fairtrade Foundation has been a lifeline to these impoverished farming families, many of whom were facing the reality of leaving the lands their families had lived on for generations. Now the very same families are not only able to stay on their land, but improve it through irrigation projects, and make a living through the orchards wherein before, the majority of the fruit used to rot on the ground

Mountains Fruits is part of a larger movement of impoverished farming communities world-wide which are incorporating modern drying and preserving techniques in order to produce internationally marketable dried goods and dramatically improve their standard of living. The utilisation of solar technologies in drying fresh produce has been taken up not only by the Mountain Areas Fruit Farmers’ Association with Sher’s help but also by similar mountain farming communities in Africa, South America, India, Sri Lanka and most recently in Afghanistan.

Sher is now training the rural farmers in value-added growing and production techniques like organic farming and has expanded production to include dried apples, sweet and bitter apricot kernels, organic walnuts and almonds, organic buckwheat, raisin, and fresh cherries. Mountain Fruits recently invested in an innovative nut-cracking system which allows the production of nuts to be increased far beyond what was possible with hand-cracking methods.

The real key to the success of Mountain Fruits and other companies and community projects like it has been its successful development of partnerships. From the beginning Sher understood that to give these farmers a chance, and to create a sustainable development model there had to be a cooperative approach. A fully coordinated value chain from producer to consumer was needed if they were to be able to access the distant markets where their produce would hold the most value.

One farmer in the Hunza Valley could not have hoped to sell his produce to an international market at three times the local market price, but an association of farmers, working in collaboration with fair-trade and wholesale companies? Mountain Fruits Pty Ltd has proven that success is possible. Mountain Fruits now boasts over four and a half thousands farming families in its ranks, and is on its way to being registered as a Fairtrade company in its own right.

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