Although Meghalaya’s thirst for tea has been a feature of its people for decades, the State’s potential as a tea growing region has only lately been explored.
The State government’s Meg Tea brand is, after years of revival, seeing steady growth and administrators are hopeful for even better days in the years to come.
The Meg Tea garden in Upper Shillong, which began its revival in 2014, not only produces specialty tea that is organically certified but is also generating employment opportunities for many.
The Darjeeling varieties of tea produced at the Upper Shillong farm are special, more aromatic and, thanks to that organic certification, are fetching higher prices in the market, Assistant Director of Horticulture and the manager of the garden, M Lyngdoh Suiam, told Highland Post.
“We produce green and black tea and follow all food safety norms and in the past year Meg Tea has become more popular,” he said, adding that 15 people from the surrounding area are employed on the farm and there are many more indirect jobs as well.
In 2008 an entry fee (currently Rs 10) was introduced to track footfall onto the farm.
Until the lockdown last year this had netted approximately Rs 2 lakh from thousands of visitors, which demonstrates that the tea garden even has tourism potential.
To promote tea farming, the Directorate of Horticulture sells tea saplings at Rs 1 each and also provides training for farmers, he informed.
For now, the target is to produce one tonne of tea a year from the Upper Shillong facility, which also makes use of organic compost and bio-pesticides to produce the best organic tea.
“We are a low volume, high-quality product and the green tea from Upper Shillong goes for Rs 3,000 per kilogramme while black tea is priced at Rs 2,500 per kg. We are planning to expand and have even thought of marketing our tea through e-commerce channels when we produce more,” Lyngdoh Suiam said.
