A tour of the Mitchell’s Fruit Farm!

One of my fondest memories of coming to Pakistan for the first time in 2006 is one of the least likely. It is not of walking along Clifton Beach in Karachi, nor the Margalla Hills near Islamabad; it is of waking up to toast and apple jam at my friends’ place in Multan.

You need this in your life.

I had never known that it was possible to make a jam from one of my favourite fruits, but it was in Multan that I discovered just how good it can taste; it was love at first bite!

I returned to Pakistan the following year and my one request to my friends was that they had apple jam on the table at breakfast. I also made a point of buying a jar of the jam to take back to Australia – for me, it was the taste of Pakistan.

The jam in question is made by one of Pakistan’s most prominent food companies; Mitchell’s. Mitchell’s produce a wide range of cordials, jams, spreads, chocolates, pickles and sauces which are adored across Pakistan and among the Pakistani diaspora around the world.

In 1933 a Mr Mitchell from the UK rented a plot of land in Renala Khurd, a village south of Lahore, where he started growing citrus fruits. It is now owned by the wealthy Syed Muratib Ali family, but the vision and quality products remain the same – tangy and sweet lime marmalade, lemon cordial and that delicious Golden Apple Jam.

A while ago, though a couple of mutual friends, I had the opportunity to visit Renala Khurd for a day and of course I knew that I would be making a pilgrimage to the Mitchell’s Fruit Farm. While factory and farm tours were once routinely offered to the public, certain issues have forced a certain reluctance on the part of the management. Luckily, one of my friends happens to know some of the bigwigs in Mitchell’s, and was able to get us inside.

The factory is set amid the fields of fruit trees which are used to make the jams and cordials – we spent five minutes driving though the shady orchards before finally reaching the building. We donned our hair nets and began our walk through.

The factory was clean, as expected of such a well-known company, but what surprised me was how compact it was – there was much less machinery and floor space than I expected would be required to make the daily yield of jam.

And the smell! The aroma of apple pulp and puree being mixed with the sugar filled the air, a delightful reminder of those days in Multan back in 2006.

However the tour didn’t just end at watching the production lines of Golden Apple Jam and Apple Jelly (two distinct products, I should point out). We were then shown to another room where Mitchell’s chocolates were being produced; Happy Hearts, a small dark chocolate heart with crispies inside, and Jubilee, a small caramel and nougat bar which was launched for Mitchells 50th birthday in 1983. And, being the chocoholic that I am, I couldn’t resist a sample…

We later met with Mr Tauseef, the head of Mitchell’s Fruit Farm at Renala Khurd, who sat us down in an office upstairs to taste some of Mitchell’s products – more chocolates and fruit squash.

Mr Tauseef told us about the operations at Renala Khurd, and how the factory operates, but he also introduced us to Maamta, a humanitarian product produced at the facility. Maamta is a nutritionally-enhanced food which tastes like a combination between sweet peanut butter and hummus.

It is produced at Mitchell’s factory on behalf of the World Food Program (WFP) and US Aid; the WFP provide the nutritional base, and Mitchell’s add chickpeas and other items to create the paste. Two small sachets can satisfy the nutritional needs of a pregnant or lactating woman for a day. The WFP and US Aid distribute the sachets to people in underprivileged communities, or in the wake of disasters. Mr Tauseef told us the Maamta product is “fully not-for-profit – simply part of our corporate social responsibility”.

It is so wonderful to see a company taking part in a programme like this, especially a successful and established company like Mitchell’s in a place like Pakistan where there are people in need. Moreover it was fantastic to be allowed to come into the factory and see where they make the products that are so loved across Pakistan, and have so become a part of the retail and food culture in this country.

I also asked whether the offer of tours still stands, considering the management’s hesitation in this regard. I was told that public tours are off the cards at the moment, but that I should keep Mitchell’s listed in Pakistan Traveller as anyone with a special interest in the factory and farm, its history and its products could always call and enquire whether they could inspect the facility.

I want to thank Mr Tauseef and the whole team at Mitchell’s for taking the time out of their days to meet us and show us around the factory, and to Malik for lining it up. And of course a special thank you to Malik and everyone at Mitchell’s for my care package that I was sent on my way with!

Who knew all those years ago in Multan when I tasted the wonderful apple jam for the first time, that years later I would be going back to the source, and getting to meet such wonderful people along the way?

Have you ever “gone back to the source” of your favourite food? Comment below!