KOHIMA — In today’s world where people have
become more health conscious and are seeking health benefit products, ‘Sünika’
enterprise from Nikhekhu village in Niuland district which produces green tea,
herbal tea and flavoured tea has found favour among the consumers as evident from
increase in demand for the products not only within Nagaland but also in the
neighbouring states.
- In an exclusive interview with Eastern Mirror, the founder
of the enterprise, N Ighato Yeptho, said ‘Sünika’ in Sumi dialect literally
means tea or tree leaves and he aims to bring that old traditional way of
drinking tea with health benefits. He expressed that the demands for green tea
and herbal tea are on the rise.
- The entrepreneur mentioned that he is unable to fulfill all
the demands because the expectations are in terms of metric tonnes, whereas
“our production is still less and we are yet to boost up. So, right now the
production I am doing is less and I cannot meet the order right now.”
- The world of processing tea leaves was not new to Yeptho as
from his childhood days his family had a tea garden.
- He informed that the journey started in August 2021. Yeptho
said since his childhood he had seen a lot of farmers having tea garden but it
was quite challenging back then as they did not have any manufacturing units
and had to be transported to Assam.
- “Not only tea but the spices and herbs as well, that are
available in abundance but we were unable to sell it off,” he said.
- He shared that after class 12, he took up Botany as his main
subject and subsequently started his journey to manufacture tea.
- Yeptho informed that he has his own tea garden in the
village. He added that every household in his village have their own small tea
garden from where he procure them. Even the herbs and spices procured from the
farmers were process at his manufacturing unit.
- He informed that most of the herbs and tea leaves are
procured from his village as well as from the neighbouring villages. He said
some herbs and spices like spearmint, liquorice and heprocuresthem that are not
available in the state are brought from other states.
-
- Annual production
