Despite the development and expansion of the road network, there is still no systematic system to deliver the apples produced in Mustang to the main markets including Kathmandu. Although the production of indigenous apples has increased and many efforts have been made at the local level to transport them, now the market is dominated by apples imported from China and India. What was the situation 32 years ago?

The story of the hardships of Mustang farmers to transport apples in the 2050s may seem like a story to many now. There was no road transport at that time. There were no shipping options other than ships or porters. But both these options were very expensive. The news that the apples grown in Mustang were wasted due to the high cost of transportation was not a new news at that time. Some of them used to make sukuti by grinding the apples, even if it was a little bit. But there was also a lack of market for this apple fruit.

At that time, you had to pay 10 to 12 rupees per kg to take apples to Pokhara by chartering a ship. To transport like that, the pilot of the ship had to be given a sack of apples for Koseli . If the pilot was not happy, he would not carry the plane, so the local residents were forced to protest.

It used to take 4 to 7 days to carry apples worth 3 to 8 rupees in a mustang and take them to Pokhara. When bringing apples through porters, its price used to be 20 to 30 rupees per kg in Pokhara. Because airplanes were not convenient at that time, 25 to 35 heavy apples were delivered to Pokhara daily by porters.

Most of the porters carrying apples from Mustang were from Dhading. Porters used to travel to Mustang and Pokhara from August to January to transport apples. China Tamang, a famous porter carrying Mustang apples, used to say that he would earn 20 to 25 thousand from August to January. But the businessmen used to complain that when the porters were transporting the apples, they rotted on the way and it took a lot of time to deliver them to the market. Apples bought from farmers were delivered to the market through traders. Producers used to demand cold store in Mustang to get reasonable price of apples by selling them during off-season . After the locals demanded a cold store, it could not be established .