GUWAHATI: The Meghalaya horticulture department will for the first time be organising a tea festival to promote the state’s organic varieties, come November.
The festival is slotted amid a series of festivals the department organises every year.
“The Meghalaya Tea Festival will be the first of its kind in the state. The festival will showcase only teas grown in the state. As you know that the teas produced in Meghalaya are organic certified, and through this festival, the department will try to promte the state’s brand of organic teas,” B. Syiem, joint director of horticulture, Meghalaya, told The Shillong Times on Monday.
The festival is scheduled to be held at the State Central Library in Shillong, even as the department is yet to finalise the dates. “We had a meeting and decided tentatively to organize the festival at the State Central Library,” Syiem said.
“All stakeholders of the tea industry in Meghalaya, including the tea houses of the state, will take part in the festival,” he said.
The department had organised a state-level jackfruit festival for the first time in the Meghalaya capital city in July.
“We have a series of festivals lined up later in the year. The Sohiong festival, where participants of the Shillong Wine Festival will also be invited to showcase their products, will be held later this month. In October, we are organising the Mushroom festival, while in December, we will have the Orange festival,” he said.
There is a tourism link to such festivals also. “Every year we have good participation and a lot of visitors also come to these festivals,” the horticulture official said.
