When Suresh Khatri of Kalanki was scrolling through Facebook on Monday morning, a notice about a week-long exhibition and sale of apples from Jumla caught his eye. He had never seen the region’s apples being sold in Kathmandu before, and decided to go and try them for himself.

By Tuesday afternoon, Khatri was at the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) complex in Bhadrakali, where apples from Jumla were displayed for sale. After tasting several varieties, he bought two kilograms.

“I like Jumla’s apples. I came because I prefer to support produce grown in our own country,” he said. “Rather than buying imported apples, I think we should build a brand around our own products.”

Prabha Baral, another visitor, bought three kilograms. She was drawn by their appearance but did not know which variety she had bought.

“They looked good. I didn’t know what variety they were, but they tasted sweet,” she said.

Khatri and Baral are among a growing number of Kathmandu consumers turning up to taste and buy apples grown in Jumla, a remote mountain district in western Nepal better known as one of the country’s main apple-growing areas.

The district’s farmers are bringing several varieties directly to the capital for display and sale. Chandannath Multipurpose Cooperative has begun selling the apples directly to consumers in an effort to build a market for Jumla’s produce beyond the district.

“The aim is to expand the market for Jumla’s apples and increase farmers’ incomes,” said Rishiram Pandey, the cooperative’s executive director. From Wednesday, the cooperative plans to expand sales with stalls at Bhrikutimandap and Khumaltar.

Pandey said the cooperative hopes to bring about 300,000 apples to Kathmandu this season. About half that number has already been put up for sale, while the rest is still in transit.

Transport remains one of the biggest obstacles. Poor road conditions have forced traders to use alternative routes, pushing up the cost of getting the fruit from Jumla to Kathmandu, Pandey said.

The apples were tested at a laboratory in Surkhet before being put on sale in Kathmandu. The cooperative is currently sorting them into three grades, A, B and C.

Prices range from Rs170 to Rs300 per kilogramme, depending on the grade and variety, according to Pandey.

The stalls also feature other products from Jumla, including walnuts, beans, Marshi rice and kaguno (foxtail millet).

The cooperative has set up one stall at the NARC complex. Apples are also being stored at the Food Management and Trading Company warehouse in Bhadrakali, from where they are being sold.

The Chandannath cooperative has about 29,000 farmer members, 19,000 of them women, Pandey said.

Jumla is famous for apples, and the fruit is a major source of income for farmers. Apple orchards cover about 4,604.53 hectares, with orchards in 16,000 of the district’s roughly 18,000 households.

Jumla produced 19,840 tonnes of apples in the 2024-25 fiscal year, according to the cooperative. Production fell to about 17,500 tonnes in 2025-26, Pandey said, while this year’s output is estimated at around 19,500 tonnes.

Yet as production grows and demand expands, the lack of modern facilities for quality testing, grading, cleaning and packaging is making it difficult for Jumla’s apples to establish a stronger brand, said cooperative secretary Abinash Budh Thapa.

Farmers still have limited access to the technology needed to sort apples by quality before they are sent to market and package them in a more attractive and commercially competitive way, he said.

“There is not enough infrastructure or machinery in Jumla to professionally clean, polish and grade the apples,” Budh Thapa said.

For farmers whose livelihoods increasingly depend on the fruit, the challenge is no longer simply growing more apples. It is getting them to consumers in better condition, at a competitive cost and with the quality and presentation needed to command a stronger place in Nepal’s increasingly crowded fruit market.