About UsMridul Kumar Bhattacharjee (MKB), the founder and patriarch of our business is a mechanical engineer by training. His obsession with tea can be traced back to his maternal grandfather, who at the turn of the last century, were amongst a handful of Assamese tea planters. MKB and his wife, Reeta Bhattacharjee, has started from scratch in the mid-1970s, and built what's today one of the largest tea export house in Assam.
In the late 1970s, MKB and his wife bought a piece of denuded forest land in Upper Assam, located on the banks of river Buri Dihing, and surrounded by the last remaining rainforest in the Eastern Himalayas, the Dihing Reserve (now part of Joydihing Wildlife Preserve). This region is called the Doom Doma Tea Belt, and is considered the best tea-growing region in the world. Over the next 25 years, MKB has let his passion lead the way, and planted one of the finest tea gardens in Assam today, Satrupa Tea Estate. Satrupa is the highest yield tea garden in Assam both in terms of crop/hectare and price/kilogram. Satrupa also has one of the most modern tea factories in Assam.
Assam is a tough place to do business. This region lacks the basic infrastructures required to market produce harvested here. There is severe flooding during the monsoon season that literally brings business to a halt. This region also hosts a wide range of rebel armies who are fighting the government of India as well as any businesses that pay taxes to the government. Over the last few years over hundred of the largest tea gardens have folded operation, and there is a good chance that more are going to follow because of lack of security and infrastructure to do business here. The global over-supply of low quality teas from newly tea growing countries have not made it easier for Assam's tea industry either.
We like a good challenge. Unlike most planters, our parents (MKB and Reeta) actually live in their tea gardens and oversee day-to-day operations on both their tea estates. Faced with an uncertain and infrequent supply of electricity, they constructed their own micro hydel power plant, and today Rani Tea Estate produces its own electricity. Faced with stiff downward spiraling prices in the tea world, MKB decided to convert Rani tea estate into a 100% organic tea garden. In August 2005, Rani becomes a certified organic tea garden, and will start catering to the fast expanding demand for organic teas worldwide. Our company is as good as the people that work in it. Our principals try to lead their business by example. Today we have a financially strong, fast growing business, that's not only setting the benchmark for growing high quality Assamese teas, but also for developing a new business model in the tea growing industry, by setting up ornamental fisheries, diary farms and other compatible profit centers within the tea garden environment. |
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