By Our Correspondent, Tanahun, June 4: Jackfruit produced in Tanahun district has found its way to the capital, Kathmandu.

Because the fruit is sold in higher quantity than anywhere else and because it is in high demand in the capital, the quantity of the fruit reaching there is more than any other cities across the country.

"Price of jackfruit in Kathmandu is very high because many people there are connoisseur of the fruit, and we can sell it at a higher price there than in any other city,” said Som Bahadur Gurung, a jackfruit contractor based in Devghat Rural Municipality-5, Tanahu, adding, “It is more profitable to sell the fruit going from house to house than selling it to the Kalimati Wholesale Market, so we sell it in small quantity.”

Gurung said that there was no problem selling the fruit as many people preferred the fruit over other vegetables. Gunj Bahadur Gurung, another contractor of the same place, said that they cultivate the fruit by taking an area of its trees under contract from the locals and that six trucks of jackfruits had already been supplied to Kathmandu and three more are being readied for transportation.

He added that 3,000 plants were contracted from Devghat, Aabukhaireni and Bandipur Rural Municipalities and the fruit was being sold at Rs. 30 per kg in wholesale market and Rs. 50 per kg in retail.

According to the traders, the vegetables made from jackfruit are as tasty as meat and have a lot of nutrition. Last year, two contractors sold jackfruit worth Rs. 300,000 in Kathmandu alone, they said. They have been in the fruit business for 10 years now.

Som Bahadur said that his family of seven had been making a living by selling the fruit. "The income earned from a month of business will suffice to manage a year's household expenditure," he said.

Krishna Man Shrestha of Aanbukhaireni, who has been selling vegetables in the capital, said that since the fruit remained fresh for a long time it could be sold easily.

Raj Sigdel, a Kathmandu-based singer, who hails from Puttar of Ghiring Rural Municipality in the district, said that jackfruit was his favourite vegetable.

“The problem is that the fruit goes out of stock time and again,” said Sigdel. He added that he used to search for the fruit in the capital remembering the taste of its vegetables which he used to eat in his childhood days in his village.

Chief of the Agriculture Knowledge Centre, Tanahun, Kul Prasad Tiwari, informed that the business of jackfruit had not been expanded as much as it should have been.

Tiwari added that the fruit is a rich source of carbohydrates, dietary fiber, vitamins A, B and C, as well as potassium, magnesium, magnesium, calcium and iron