India: Kiwis from Arunachal Pradesh’s Ziro Valley going global
“And yet 6,000 tons of kiwis are still imported into India every year,” says Tage Rita Takhe who resides in the Ziro Valley. Takhe, an agricultural engineering graduate, thought to herself, “Why do we need to import when it is practically growing in our backyard?”
Up until very recently, the kiwi farmers of Arunachal Pradesh were withdrawing from cultivation of the fruit and closing down their farms. In 2016, Takhe decided to invest in a boutique winery in her native village, Hong, and just a few months ago launched Naara-Aaba, a pure kiwi wine that is made from the organic fruit sourced from her personal orchard as well as those from the Kiwi Growers Cooperative Society in Arunachal Pradesh.
Wine is traditionally made by Takhe’s tribe: the Apatani Tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. “Wine from rice, wine from millet, but never from kiwi,” she says. Indianexpress.com talks about the fruit she is cultivating: “No pesticides, no agents, nothing,” she says. The wine, too, has been given a clean certificate regarding its composition, according to lab analyses.
