Eteakol, founded in mid-2021 with its team members in both Assam, India, and Berlin, Germany, is a new wholesale platform/business that lets buyers purchase premium, bulk tea from India – directly from fully-vetted, small tea producers.
The company’s Founder and CEO, Gaurav Gogoi, says they’re trying to simplify the process for small tea brands, various retailers and companies in the foodservice industry – as well as other businesses in vertical markets – who need to purchase high-quality wholesale tea.
No contracts are needed, and Eteakol allows its wholesale customers to purchase just what they need, when they need it. The company simply lists the single-origin teas that are available from small farmers across different regions of India – all of which is premium loose-leaf tea that’s ethically produced (the exact source and name of the producer is always included with wholesale purchases). Once a transaction takes place, Eteakol takes care of the fulfilment, free global shipping, and handles customs clearance on all bulk orders.
“Our goal is to make Eteakol the easiest and most convenient way to make global B2B purchases,” says Gogoi. “Wholesale customers just need to go to Eteakol.com and choose which teas or farmers they would like to purchase from, select the ones they want, and go through a simple checkout process. That’s it. We take care of everything else until the shipment is delivered to their address in 15 to 20 days.”
Gogoi says potential wholesale customers can also order samples of each of the teas, if they’d like to try them before a bulk order. “We provide free shipping and customs clearance for that, too,” notes Gogoi, who focuses on listing the best quality products, directly from the source of origin, and then makes them available all in one place.
“Our wholesale catalogue and prices are available online,” he says. “There's no need to get in touch with a sales department or create an account to access our listed products.”
Founder’s Background Brings Everything Together
Eteakol is the brainchild of Gogoi, which he founded with colleague Nirab Medhi. Gogoi is originally from Assam, where he grew up around tea farmers and workers, so he understands the tea-producing community. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and then studied abroad at ESSEC Business School in France, where he received a master's degree in management. He also has an in-depth background in e-commerce, covering products, logistics and business.
Not long ago, the idea of Eteakol came to Gogoi when he was back home visiting his family in Assam (Gogoi lives in Berlin), when he met with Tridip (pictured below), a tea farmer in India. After tasting Tridip’s teas, Gogoi realized they were of higher quality, so he decided to create a platform where small producers – like Tridip – could market their products internationally. Today, Eteakol is a way for Gogoi to give back to his tea-farming community and to help them share their stories and teas with the world.
“I was born and brought up in Assam, right in the middle of the tea growing region. I have grown up seeing firsthand the social, economic and environmental issues faced by the people involved with the traditional tea industry,” Gogoi says. “The large tea company’s goal of increasing production volumes and profit at the cost of the workers and the local ecology is something that is very real to me. Additionally, I left India for Europe, where I’ve worked in the ecommerce industry and learnt the ropes of global logistics, as well as the intricacies of product development, marketing and the local customer need. This unique background helps me keep things in perspective. The mission of Eteakol and how we execute on it to achieve our vision is something definitely inspired by my personal and professional experiences so far.”
Eteakol’s Strict Standards Regarding Tea Farms
Gogoi says Eteakol has strict standards on what tea producers can sell on the platform, and they assess each of the farmers and cooperatives who sell their teas through the site. Producers must grow their plants and gardens organically and follow sustainable cultivation practices, regardless of their ability to afford organic certification.
“They all follow organic farming [practices] and don’t use any chemical and synthetic fertilizers and pesticides,” Gogoi says. “Moreover we also judge their sustainability impact based on the UN SDG17 framework [United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals] – things like their impact on women equality, education, life on land and underwater, etc.
Eteakol mainly works with small tea growers and remote cooperatives from the North-East Indian states of Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and the region of Darjeeling, but they have plans to onboard organic growers from the Southern part of India in the near future.
“We want the farmers and manufacturers to do what they do best – produce the best quality products – and Eteakol takes care of everything else,” says Gogoi, who describes Eteakol as a “curated discovery platform” for small and medium businesses across the globe.
Gogoi says many of Eteakol’s customers have had a challenging time with buying high quality products on their own, directly from farmers, in addition to transparency and supply chain issues – until Eteakol began offering it services.
“The typical customers of Eteakol are the small and medium businesses who want high quality products and care about the environment, sustainability or ethical sourcing,” shares Gogoi. “They can be anyone from a cafe, restaurant or a teahouse to private label brands or retailers of tea across Europe and North America. These are the customer segments who never had the opportunity before to directly purchase from the source before, but now they can do so on Eteakol.com.”
Overall, Eteakol says they want to work with businesses around the world that need to source high-quality and sustainable tea for their customers, and who want a hassle-free procurement experience.
“I want Eteakol to be remembered as the go-to place to procure high quality sustainable and ethical tea,” says Gogoi. “I also want Eteakol to be remembered as an entity that incentivized the transition to sustainable cultivation practices, as well as a place to learn about the stories of the farmers and people that actually produce this beverage that we all love so dearly.”
To learn more about Eteakol, visit Eteakol.com.
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