The Mountain Fruits Company (MFC) was founded in 2000 and is still the only Pakistani company that processes and exports organic and Fairtrade-certified dried fruit, nuts and nut oils. The company emerged from a development project of the Aga Khan Foundation. It has retained its original mission: It improves and increases the income and scope of action of small farmers in the remote region of Gilgit-Baltistan.

The "Gilgit-Baltistan" region is a Pakistani special territory in the far north of the country and part of the politically disputed region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Geographically, the region lies at the foothills of the Karakoram Mountains. This mountain range stretches across northern Pakistan, India and western China. It includes some of the highest mountains in the world, such as K2 (8,051 m), Gasherbrum I (8,080 m) and Gasherbrum II (8,034 m).

Surrounded by this imposing mountain world are the cultivation areas of the small farmers who have joined the Mountain Fruits Association (MonAFFA). Today there are a total of around 65 men's and 10 women's groups, which are organised into different Fairtrade associations depending on their valley affiliation and are managed centrally by a MonAFFA board.

To date, around 50 per cent of almond production is certified organic. The intention is to further expand and promote the certification of organic cultivation methods and sustainable production structures. Neither pesticides nor artificial fertilisers have always been used. There are two reasons for this: Firstly, these aids cannot be purchased locally, and secondly, the costs would exceed the budget of the small farmers.

When the harvest is due in September, MFC buys between 200 and 280 tonnes of almonds in the shell from around 1,400 almond farmers in the region. The almonds are cracked and roughly pre-sorted by machine in a factory that was built specifically for this purpose in 2010. To minimise the risk of foreign parts, the almonds are sorted again by hand after this mechanical processing. This work is carried out exclusively by women.

The almonds from Pakistan taste sweeter than the well-known Californian almonds. The size and colour of the individual almond kernels can vary, as they come from forty different varieties.