Maker of India's First Organic Kiwi Wine, Tage Rita from Arunachal Pradesh, Shines Ray of Hope on Kiwi Farmers

Are you familiar with the Kiwi fruit? Is this fruit available in your region? Have you ever come across a Kiwi farm? Well, you will be amazed to know that Arunachal Pradesh, in the Northeastern part of India, is home to this exotic fruit. Apart from Arunachal Pradesh, this sweet and tangy fruit is also available in the states of Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala. The Indian market was unaware of the abundant existence of Kiwi in the hills and valleys of Arunachal Pradesh. The Indian market was bringing in about 6000 metric tonnes of Kiwi from abroad. Because of consuming these imported Kiwis, the urban Indian market started preferring a New Zealand brand.

So what happened to the large amount of Kiwis available in Arunachal Pradesh? This is where Tage Rita Takhe, an engineer turned entrepreneur, comes in. If you have ever tasted Kiwi wine in India, Tage Rita is the person that you need to attribute it to.

She was also conferred with the Nari Shakti Purashkar award for the year 2021 on the eve of International Women's Day, 2022. The then President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, presented her the award for excellence in Promoting women Entrepreneurship and Local product globally.

Tage Rita Rakhe is India's first organic wine brewer and she developed India's first organic kiwi wine from the fruit in Arunachal. The Government of India conferred the Nari Shakti Purashkar for the year 2021 to Rita for the achievement. But how did this journey start?

At the onset, Rita was shocked to notice the import statistics of Kiwi to India. It came as a surprise to her that a fruit, which is available in huge amounts in the backyards of Arunachal Pradesh, was being imported from outside when Indian could have commoditized the homegrown fruit. The reason behind this was surely the lack of awareness. However, it was already too late to compete in the market for Kiwi, which was already used to the imported Kiwi.

So how did Rita play her cards? It was the year 2015 when Arunachal state saw its State Wine Policy introducing certain offers and support system for local entrepreneurs involved in winemaking.

Rita's husband, Takhe Tamo, always had a goal to start a winery. He loved wine and educated his wife about the same.

She along with her husband discussed a plan of setting up a winery for two years. During this time, they forwarded their project report to a bank, in order to receive financial support for vats, machinery and other infrastructure.

They finally established their winery on 1 January 2016.

This takes us back to when Rita noticed the state of Kiwi fruit. She became aware of the fact that farmers from her place are not exploiting the full potential of the fruit. She realized that the Kiwi fruit could be a good market commodity. However, what she had to figure out was a way to launch it in the market.

Drinking wine was a traditional habit in many tribal cultures. However, they did not have a way to preserve these drinks for a long time. Rita analysed that to draw out the full potential of the Kiwi fruit in terms of market and price, making wine would be a good option. This was where the entrepreneurial idea in Rita was born. All they lacked was modern wine-brewing methods.

After setting up their winery, Rita along with her husband used 20 metric tons of kiwi to produce pure organic kiwi wine, the first of its kind in the nation. This initiative gave birth to hopes in the farmer's orchards who possessed Kiwi fruit farms. Consequently, they returned to their orchards.

After that, in the year 2017, Rita finally launched our nation's first organic kiwi wine produced in her winery workshop at Hong village of Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh. Tage Tatung, an agro-horticulturist from the Ziro area, also joined her journey. She and Tatung brought 20 hectares of area under cultivation in the Ziro Valley to empower the Kiwi farmers of the region.

Tamiyo Taga, the then Arunachal Pradesh Industries Minister, launched Rita's Kiwi wine in the year 2017 at a function held at Hong village in Lower Subansiri district.

Rita's Kiwi wine was named, 'Naara-Aaba'. Rita attributes the name of the brand to her late father-in-law. Lovingly, he was known as Naara-Aaba.

Subu Food & Beverages or Lambu-Subu Food, is the company who has been brewing 'Naara-Aaba' since the start. They started with Kiwi wine and now produces wines from plum, pear, peach and wild apple.

Prior to starting her entrepreneur journey, Rita worked in the Public Works Department of Arunachal Pradesh as an engineer. She was an agricultural engineer and worked in the PWD for 17 years. The engineer turned entrepreneur trained as an agricultural engineer from NERIST (North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology), Nirjuli, Arunachal Pradesh.

Rita hails from Hong village; Rita is a member of the Apatani community. This community of Arunachal Pradesh is popularly known for their sustainable forestry system. She is a farmer's daughter.

Unlike most people with a desire to be on a sabbatical to search for better options, Rita faced the same insecurity that most faces. She was aware of the job security that her government job let her enjoyed. Moreover, she also felt complacent. Apparently, she felt restricted and wondered if she was actually realizing her full potential.

Her wine is now a certified organic wine. NaaraAaba uses organic ingredients, which are certified. This is inclusive of the fruits, yeast and sugar used in the production of the wine.

The process of producing the NaaraAaba kiwi wine first involves the collection of the fruits and sorting, cleaning and grading them in the winery. After that, the fruit is run through a fructose level check-up. Meanwhile the ingredients are measured and the temperature is set. According to these calculations, yeast and sugar are added subsequently. After that cold-stablization of the wine is carried out in the chilling plant. During that time, the product is kept between minus 10 to minus 4 degree Celsius for a period of 72 hours. The cold stabilization eliminates any microbes present in the wine. The wine is then filtered with the use of membranes and cartridge filters, which enhances the glow of the beverage. Finally, the wine is bottle and capped.

As of 2021, NaaraAaba is producing a capacity of 60,000 litres per batch. The winery consists of 16 tanks, which has a storage capacity of 1,000 to 8,000 litres.

Arunachal's climate is ideal for the production of Kiwi fruit. The abundant sunshine that Arunachal receives contributes to the mouthwatering taste of the fruit and facilitates optimum growth.

This movement of Rita, brought back employment for the people of her region. Farmers, who did not know what to do with the fruits available in their farm, now base their livelihood around it. The ones who gave up on their Kiwi farms with are now seen working effortlessly for Kiwi production.

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