Guwahati: Despite Assam producing around 50 per cent of the country's tea, the 200-year-old tea industry of the state is in dire crisis. To overcome this situation, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has approached Baba Ramdev to take over the responsibility of branding and marketing of Assam tea. If things go as planned then Assam tea will soon be sold through Baba Ramdev's Patanjali across the world.
Assam minister for labour and employment Sanjay Kisan recently confirmed the Assam government's preparations to hand over the responsibility of branding and marketing of Assam tea to Patanjali. It is not the first time that Baba Ramdev will enter the state with his magnum business conglomerate.
Recently, Patanjali was handed over 20,000 hectares of land for palm oil cultivation in Sadiya of Assam’s Tinsukia district, the move though has witnessed severe backlash from many political parties, organisations and the public .
"Assam does not have the market that is needed for the amount of tea that is produced here at present. Thus, it is difficult to sell the tea produced here resulting which, the tea industry faces a lot of challenges. The major problem being tea growers not getting a fair price. Also, there is a tough competition as Assam's market is flooded with tea from Kenya and Sri Lanka," minister Sanjay Kisan said.
He further said that the Chief Minister has contacted Baba Ramdev directly in this matter and the latter has promised to help in marketing Assam tea as it has a huge market in the world. "He will buy Assam tea on his own and market it in different parts of the world through Patanjali. Through Patanjali, arrangements will be made for selling and marketing the tea produced in Assam," he said
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