Hem Kumar Shrestha, a permanent resident of Makwanpur's Hetaunda sub-metropolitan city-4, is working in an NGO in Jumla. He took about 50 kg of apples, 5 kg of walnuts and 15 kg of beans to Koseli when he went home on Dasain holidays last Friday.

"Let's do other shopping there, I didn't miss Karnali koseli during Dasain," he said when met at Surkhet airport. Don't miss . He has been working in Humla for 3 years and is a resident of Gulmi's Isma Rural Municipality. "This year, I brought only two quintals of apples as I came from the car," he said when met at Birendranagar Bus Park, "I have also brought 3/4 kilos of walnuts, beans, chinos and kaguno to give to relatives and neighbors." But the demand for apples, walnuts and beans is high. Businessmen say that it is cheaper, tastier and easier to store than Indian and Chinese apples and walnuts.

'Those who come from Karnali bring it for their relatives and families,' said Ratan Bahadur Rawal, the owner of Karnali Agro Company in Nepalgunj Dhambozhi, 'We are commercially sending Karnali products to various places.' He informed that about 10 truckloads of apples were sent to Kathmandu, Butwal, Biratnagar, Hetaunda and Pokhara during one week for Dasain. According to him, Karnali apples have been sent at a wholesale price of Rs 150 per kg. He informed that about 20 quintals of walnuts and 300 quintals of beans were also sent to different cities.

Surkhet-based Karnali Koseli Mart has also sent out about 10 trucks of apples, 30 quintals of walnuts and 500 quintals of beans in a week. He informed that walnuts at wholesale price of 1000 rupees and beans at 150 rupees per kg were sent to Kathmandu, Pokhara and Butwal. "All products of Karnali are organic, there is demand from all over the country, it is difficult to meet the demand," he said, "Although the production is great, there is a problem in transportation due to the lack of road access to rural areas."

Dev Kumar Shrestha, the owner of Prithvi Construction Company in Suryavinayak Municipality, Bhaktapur, who was returning from Surkhet to Kathmandu, said that Karnali apples are easy to eat at home during Dasain, to offer prasad to guests and to take koseli to dignitaries. When he returned home, he took 50 kg of apples. According to him, Karnali apples are tasty and juicy because they are organic.

Bhupendra Kattel, the owner of Kattel Wholesale Vegetable Sales Center in Birendranagar, said that he has sold about 5 metric tons of apples this season. His store still has about one metric ton of apples in stock. According to him, Karnali's apples have won over Indian and Chinese apples this year.

"The trade of local apples is now five times more than that of apples from outside," he said, "Apples from India have not arrived for a month." According to him, local apples are being sold at 150 rupees. He said that the apple that came in the car from Humla for the first time was everyone's choice. Humla was connected to the national road network only about three months ago. He says that the demand for Humla apples has increased due to the fact that they are grown in very cold places and the seeds are more tasty and larger.

According to the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives, 29 thousand 761 metric tons of apples have been produced out of 8 thousand 249 hectares of apples in Karnali. Out of that, about 26 thousand metric tons of apples have reached the market according to the ministry's data. Walnut has been cultivated in about 1,204 hectares across Karnali. About 1400 metric tons of walnuts were produced last year. This year too, the ministry estimates that the production of walnuts will be around the same. Farmers of Karnali are getting good benefits from walnuts as walnuts are planted in apple orchards, said agriculturist Naveen Sharma . According to him, walnut production is increasing every year through quality plants, organic fertilizer management and maximum consumption of biological pesticides.