PRESS
Below are some international and national press articles focused on Mountain Hazelnuts.
National Press
"Farmers in Dunggoen in Radhi, Trashigang are finally harvesting nuts for the first time from the Hazelnut trees that they have planted in over 100 acres of land in the community." MORE...
"ཧེ་མ་འབད་བ་ཅིན་ བཀྲིས༌སྒང༌རྫོང༌ཁག༌ ར་ལྡི་ རྒོད༌འོག༌གཡུས༌དྲུང་དགོན་ གྱི་སོ་ནམ་པ་ཚུ་གིས་ ས་ཞིང་ སྟོངམ་འབད་བཞག་སྟེ་ཡོཔ་ཨིན་ རུང་ ལོ་༧ གི་ཧེ་མ་ལས་ ཁོང་ སོ་ནམ་པ་ཚུ་གིས་ གངས་རི་ཧ་ ཟས་གྱི་ཤིང་འདི་ ས་ཆགས་ཨེ་ ཀར་༡༠༠ དེ་ཅིག་ནང་བཙུགས་ ཏེ་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན༌མས།" MORE...
"Looking after one and a half acres of hazelnut trees for the last six years in Kidheykhar, Mongar, Tshewang Zangmo’s experience was no different from the rest of the farmers in the country." MORE...
"Hazelnut growers across the country are optimistic as they begin to see the results of Mountain Hazelnuts’ grafting program. Three months after the first grafts were made, significant growth from the grafted stems are being reported in all 15 dzongkhags where the program took place and growers are confident they will see large harvests in the years ahead." MORE...
"Mountain Hazelnut Venture Private Limited (MHVPL), Bhutan’s first 100% FDI Company, has over the years made significant progress in uplifting the lives and income of rural farmers and thousands who are engaged in hazelnut farming." MORE...
"Mountain Hazelnuts has started to train over 150 staff in hazelnut grafting and plans to implant one million grafts in the eastern dzongkhags of Trashigang, Mongar, Lhuntse, and Pema-gatshel from this month." MORE...
"༉ མོང་སྒར་གླིང་མི་ཐང་ལུ་ཡོད་པའི་ གངས་རི་ཧ་ཟས་ལས་སྡེ་གིས་ ནུབ་ཕྱོགས་རྫོང་ཁག་༤ ལས་ མི་སེར་༡༥ ལུ་ ཉིན་གྲངས་༢ ཀྱི་རིང་ ཧ་ཟས་ཤིང་འཛུགས་སྐྱོང་གི་ སྦྱོང་བརྡར་བྱིན་པའི་ཤུལ་ལས་ ཁ་ཙ་ སྔ་ཚང་རྒེད་འོག་ནང་ཡོད་པའི་ གངས་རི་ཧ་ཟས་ལྡུམ་ར་ནང་ ལྟ་བཤལ་ཁྱིད་དེ་ ལས་རིམ་མཇུག་བསྡུ་ཡི།" MORE...
"With hazelnut harvest started, the Mountain Hazelnuts (MH) has taken collection to the farmers’ doorsteps by establishing five collection centers in areas convenient to farmers over the last week." MORE...
"If fallowing land is a growing concern in the country, the prospect of cash income from selling hazelnut is encouraging farmers to turn their fallow fields into hazelnut plantations." MORE...
“Unlike potato and apples, hazelnuts are relatively damage-proof and aren’t as perishable. Best of all, Bhutanese farmers will link into the international market economy without having to move from where they are.” MORE...
“Bhutan will begin hazelnuts export from next year. Mountain Hazelnuts has projected over 500,000 kilograms of hazelnuts to be exported in China and Europe. With many plants past fruit-bearing stage, farmers of Trashigang are expected to produce the largest quantity next year.” MORE...
“More than a year after being planted, hazelnut trees in some parts of Chukha are showing progressive growth and leading to high hopes among growers.” MORE...
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
"Mountain Hazelnuts partners with thousands of farming partners to plant 10 million hazelnut trees, significantly increasing the income of 15 percent of the population. By providing a sustainable cash crop and employment in the mountains of Bhutan, we keep vulnerable communities and families intact and reduce rural-to-urban migration." MORE..
"Bhutan’s mountainous terrain is ideal for producing hazelnuts, a crop which has grown in popularity globally in recent years. These farmers work with Mountain Hazelnuts, a public-private partnership set up with the government." MORE..
"Bhutan is opening up to foreign investment. Its first 100% foreign-owned company is tapping into global demand for hazelnuts, and bringing new sources of income to mountain communities" MORE...
"The farmers also use smart phones and ICT to communicate with Mountain Hazelnuts staff. More than half of the farmers have smart phones, although not all of them are literate. Thus, the company uses voice messaging and video-recording functions of a Social Network Service (SNS) to communicate with farmers. " MORE...
"The project allows participating farmers to significantly increase their income by selling hazelnuts. Mountain Hazelnuts will also provide farmers with access to global knowledge and best practices. Mountain Hazelnuts’ business model is simple but promises significant development impact." MORE...
Asian Development Bank - CNBC Deal of the Year!
"The award for Best Corporate Finance Transaction went to Mountain Hazelnuts, a firm which is developing an inclusive and environmentally sustainable hazelnut value chain in Bhutan.” MORE...
"This unusual partnership between a small Bhutanese start up and a Buddhist nun is representative of a new trend in development financing known as ‘blended finance’— the mixing of public, philanthropic and private capital in emerging and frontier markets." MORE...
“Mountain Hazelnuts, a social enterprise focused on improving lives in Bhutan through the cultivation of hazelnuts, has joined the Business Call to Action (BCtA) with a commitment to integrate 7,500 women-headed smallholder farming families into its value chain." MORE...
“For most of these subsistence farmers, it will be a first exposure to the practices of the latest agricultural techniques, while respecting the traditions of local family-oriented farming.” MORE...
“Mountain Hazelnuts is using off-the-shelf technology such as Android phones, barcode scanners, and MySQL databases to build a tech-savvy sustainable, culturally cohesive nut-growing business in collaboration with villages in mountainous Bhutan." MORE...
“In the rugged Himalayan mountains of Bhutan, farmers are busy cracking the next big opportunity – hazelnuts. Mountain Hazelnuts, a business where profits go hand-in-hand with positive effects on livelihoods and ecosystems preservation." MORE...
“This hazelnut-growing enterprise delivers improved economic opportunities to farmers in remote parts of Bhutan while restoring eroded and hilly landscapes.” MORE...
“Daniel Spitzer recognized you can't have a sustainable business unless you establish good relationships with local communities.” MORE...
“The venture will provide jobs for 15,000 households and carpet the hillsides with lush green trees that produce lucrative crops that are easily saleable on global markets.” MORE...
"If Mountain Hazelnut hits its target of 15,000 farming households averaging 6 members each, it will directly affect about 15% of Bhutan's population. Achieving that goal would make a serious dent in Bhutan's rural poverty." MORE...
“Mountain Hazelnuts is deeply committed to ensuring the success of our farmer partners, which include nunneries, monasteries, and schools. Mountain Hazelnuts is [expanding] on its social and environmental initiatives, raising the financial literacy of women farmers and studying ways of increasing climate resilience" MORE...
“ In addition to working with about ten thousand farming households, nunneries, and monasteries, the company directly employs 800 people and generates income for about 1,200 more who provide outsourced services to the company." MORE...
"The project will help develop an inclusive and environmentally sustainable hazelnut value chain in Bhutan, promote private sector agribusiness development, and help reduce poverty." MORE...
VIDEOS
BBS in Dzongkha
The hard work of farmers in Eastern Dzongkhags has finally paid off. They have harvested their first hazelnuts. Following traditions, farmers organized a harvesting ceremony in which company representatives participated. Click on the video on the left for the Dzongkha version of the BBS broadcast of the ceremony.
BBS in English
The hard work of farmers in Eastern Dzongkhags has finally paid off. They have harvested their first hazelnuts. Following traditions, farmers organized a harvesting ceremony in which company representatives participated. Click on the video on the left for the English version of the BBS broadcast of the ceremony.
"My hard work has finally paid off. My trees have started producing hazelnuts and I am very happy. I want to plant more hazelnut trees now as the company is providing tree saplings free of cost and delivering to our houses, so I want to make the most of this opportunity,” said Naku, who is a farmer." MORE...
“The chance to make a profit has attracted many farmers... The project has become so popular that the government says it will eventually employ about 15% of the entire population” MORE...
Please get in touch with us at info@mountainhazelnuts.com if you are a journalist and would like more information on the Company.