STiR coffee and tea magazine

40 STiR coffee and tea | 2023 Issue 5 (October / November) E By Roopak Goswami Key to the new method is on-site extraction within 24 hours of harvest, which retains nutrients and allows value-addition at origin. The three-way project is led by Shekib Ahmed, director, Bagasa Plantations. xtracts from tea have become a large and growing export business that sup- plies European, American, and Japanese companies making not only foods and beverages but also nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and cosmeceuticals. There is a high barrier to entry in this business, however, because of its expense. The current method of tea extraction is costly to set up and yields low recovery rates. This puts tea extraction out of reach for many businesses and makes the product itself more expensive. Now a three-way collaboration in India's tea-growing Assam State is developing a frugal way to make extracts for medicines and wellness. The project is led by Koliabur Tea Estate using technology from Fast Track Agro LLP, in collaboration with the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Guwahati. Tea Extraction Project Unlocks Nutraceutical Potential A collaborative effort in India's Assam State seeks cost- effective extraction process to support value-added exports. The team is working on a novel pro- cess that unlocks tea nutrients in an eco- nomically viable way. By utilizing on-site extraction within 24 hours of harvest, the process significantly reduces nutrient loss. It not only ensures quality but also creates the potential for local growers to earn higher prices for their produce, bol- stering their economic prospects. "In our process, we directly take the tea out of a particular manufacturing stage and then take it for a novel extrac- tion process followed by low-heat dry- ing," says Shekib Ahmed, director, Baga- sa Plantations, the company that owns the Koliabur Tea Estate in Nagaon in central Assam. He is leading the project. "This is to extract the maximum amount of nutrients out of the tea before it is lost in the high heat drying and storage phases. The cost efficiency is due to the asset-light model, which reduces the capi- tal expenditure; supply chain efficiency that reduces operational costs (particularly transportation); and innovative interven- tions that bring in efficiencies in energy and production capability costs. Our tests have shown that the values from our ex- tract process are yielding higher values than our peers," Ahmed says. "This was from an ongoing discus- sion for a while on how to go up the val- ue chain in a frugal and scientific manner. We initially started with food products extracts. It was only through the process of the tests and experiments that we were guided to look at the pharmaceutical,

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