Transporting Dorokha’s Oranges

Kuensel, Thimpu
http://www.kuenselonline.com
January 27, 2004

By Tashi Dorji
tashi_dorji@kuensel.com.bt

At this time of the year the mule track to Dorokha from Samtse, about 10-hour walk that requires crossing the Damdum river more than a dozen times, is at its busiest.

It is a dusty zigzag climb from the Samtse plains to Dorokha higher up on the adjoining hills and a downhill descent to the Toorsa valley which is the main source of activity along Dorokha’s widened muletrack.

Most of the caravans of mules and ponies that pace the dry muletrack begin their journey in the Toorsa valley which is home to numerous mandarin orchard plantations that is said to produce the finest fruit in the country.

The mules and ponies belong to the Haaps (of Haa dzongkhag) who migrate south to Samtse in winter. They play a key role in transporting the mandarin harvest from Dorokha to collection points in Samtse from where it is loaded on to trucks for export to Bangladesh.

“I have been walking this zigzag muletrack transporting oranges every winter for the last 10 years,” says Pemba Tshering, 45, of Balamna village in Haa. This winter he has 11 ponies and mules that carry the mandarin in bamboo baskets to export depots in Samtse. It is a two-day journey up and down.

“About 80 percent of our orange carriers are from Haa, the rest are locals of Dorokha who own animals,” said the proprietor of Adhikari exports, Dadiram Adhikari in Samtse.

The earnings from the carriage is an important source of income for the Haaps. “We don’t know when this practice started, but today, this is one of the main source of income for us,” said Pemba Tshering. On an average, every household in Samar geog has about 6 ponies.”

The ponies and mules carry about four to seven pons (a pon is 80 oranges) of mandarin at a time depending on its size. The number of days taken for the journey is not accounted for and the owners are paid a carrying charge of Nu 85 to 90 for a pon delivered.

There are also hundreds of porters who carry the oranges on their backs (because they do not own mules) and save their earnings to carry salt, kerosene and other basic necessities back home for the whole year.

Some of the mandarin carriers get into contracts with the Bhutanese exporters to transport all the fruit of orchards which the exporter has bought. The Haap carriers travel in groups of four to five and some even employ caretakers and helpers for an extra hand to manage the caravan which can sometimes stretch to 30 animals. Time is of paramount importance and the porters begin their day at the crack of dawn to cover as much distance as possible.

“If you have 14 to 15 ponies you earn as much as a truck earns during the mandarin season,” Gangza Wangchuk, 25, who owns 4 ponies, told Kuensel.

Apart from oranges, the carriers are also engaged in transporting construction material like cement for contractors and food rations for schools and the security forces.

“Dorokha is literally cut off for months during the summer because of landslides and the swollen Damdum river,” said Bhudiraj of Dorokha village. “So most of the stocking of food and consumer items are done during the winter months and the Haaps do most of the work. Little sheds serving food and drinks also sprout along the muletrack to cater to the heavy human and animal traffic.”

According to Gangza Wangchuk he makes about Nu 45,000 working with four ponies over six months from winter to spring.

But the porters do face difficult times when the animals fall sick. “They rarely recover and die most of the time,” said Mekthey, 46, of Jyenkhana village in Haa. “There is also the fear of attack of wild animals although it is not so common.”

When spring approaches, the Haaps begin the one-week return journey from Samtse to Haa laden with bags of rice and salt and new clothes.

Back home the winter migrants of Samar geog grow potatoes, wheat, buckwheat and other vegetables. The potato is sold off at the Phuentsholing auction yard. The animals are given rest and nourished although some hire them out to the few tourists on trek for Nu 150 a pony.

With the mandarin season at its peak the Haaps in Samtse are happy. Pemba Tshering unloads his animals of the fresh citrus fruit. He may spend a day looking for loads that needs to be taken to Dorokha while his animals rest. But the following day he will start on the muletrack to orange orchards, a walk he knows like the back of his hand.

The mandarin season in Samtse

Ninety percent of Samtse’s oranges make it for export to Bangladesh. The rest are absorbed by local markets of the nearby Indian towns.

According to the Bhutan agriculture and food regulatory (BAFRA) officer in Samtse, Karma Tenzin, the yield in the dzongkhag this season is much more than the previous season although the overall figure has declined in the last few years.

BAFRA records show that 327.7 metric tonnes (MT) of oranges were exported to Bangladesh and 19.57 MT to India from Samtse in December 2003. Sibsoo dungkhag exported 37.4 MT to Bangladesh and 7.4 MT to India.

"Today it is only about 200 trucks,” said Dadiram Adhikari, the proprietor of Adhikari exports. “With about 20 percent damaged in transportation and another 20 quarantined by the BAFRA as unfit for export, only 60 percent of the total yield is exported,” said Dadhiram Adhikari. Even the quality of the fruit has deteriorated because of lack of management according to food regulatory officers although the mandarin from Dorokha is considered the best in the country.

Omapati Phuyel, an exporter, said that profits were better when the export to Bangladesh started in 1988 under the guidance of the state trading corporation of Bhutan limited (STCBL). “After the export was privatised in 1992, the importers have been able to manipulate prices by exercising their monopoly in the market,” he said.

The fruit is exported in two sizes, meel (big) and keel (small). The minimum export reserve price this season is up by a US $ 1 to US $7 for meel and US $ 5 for keel for a box of oranges weighing about 25 kilogrammes.

The three exporters in Samtse spend more than 80 percent of their investment in transporting the fruit from Dorokha on horseback which normally takes about two full days. “If a motorable road is built from Samtse to Dorokha, our profits will multiply by tenfolds,” said Omapati. But that could kill the livelihood of the porters from Haa.

On the overall yield, exporters feel that there will be a boost in another two to three years as “most of the growers have started using pesticides,” said Dadhiram Adhikari.

http://www.kuenselonline.com/article.php?sid=3682