In these hard times of strain on economy due to Covid-induced lockdown, it was refreshing to see a major online tea trader partnering with a principal tea producer to celebrate Diwali along with the plantation workers, most of whom are migrant labour.

“We have been trading on top quality speciality tea from Avataa plantations for a few years now and considering the ongoing hard time, we have stepped up our efforts to improve the lifestyle of these estate workers whose dextrous hands have been crafting quality teas”, Ashok Mittal, Managing Director, Teamonk Global Foods Pvt Ltd., Bengaluru, told BusinessLine .

Monetary aid, freebies

“Consequently, as part of our corporate social responsibility, we have decided to pay the full fee of all children of Avataa estate workers for their education locally and reimburse 20 per cent of the fee for senior classes in the education pursued outside The Nilgiris”, he said.

“Likewise, we will bear all expenses to help the children of estate workers at the Avataa crèche”, he noted.

“For this Diwali, we are distributing pant, shirt, saree, dhothi, sweet and crackers to the families of all the 120 workers on the tea estate”, he disclosed.

“These are in addition to the bonus paid as per law and plucking incentives besides the monthly wages already distributed to all the workers to help them celebrate Diwali in their quarters on our estate devoid of the overall economic pressure caused by the ongoing pandemic”, G Udayakumar, Avataa Director, said.

“We are happy to associate with Teamark on such ventures because we have been custom-designing the content of our speciality teas for Teamark the last few years”, he disclosed.

Corporate gifts

“We have been exporting such exclusive Avataa speciality teas to the US, Canada, the UK and rest of Europe. We do e-commerce primarily through our portal as also the major e-traders but devote 25 per cent of our tea sale to institutional and corporate gifting segment”, Ashok Mittal said.

“Along side, we have launched a gift pack suiting these Covid days. The pack comprises alcohol-based sanitizer, two face masks and a ceramic cup containing Kadha tea – mixture of green tea, pepper, cinnamon, ginger and tulsi”, Avataa Speciality Tea Production Executive ENR Vejayashekara said.

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