Shillong, Dec 22: Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma has conferred the “Entrepreneur of the Month†Award to Smoky Falls Tribe Coffee, a firm that popularized Meghalaya’s indigenous coffee produced in various parts of the state.
Conrad presented the award to founder of Smoky Falls Tribe Coffee, Dasumarlin Majaw.
Majaw’s father, Dondor Giri Nongkhlaw accompanied her in receiving the award.
The Chief Minister termed Majaw an inspiration for the youth of the state, and her venture has popularized coffee from Meghalaya.
Smoky Falls Tribe Coffee is manufacturing coffee powder since 2016, and green coffee from this year.
The packaged coffee is produced by using the best modern roasting and grinding methods, and the packaging is as per the European Union standards.
This is the second “Entrepreneur of the Month†award that the Chief Minister had conferred to entrepreneurs of the state.
The first award was given recently to Perastill R. Marak from Garo Hills, who is manufacturing value added products like chips, juice and cookies made out of locally available fruits like jackfruit, banana and tapioca.
Through “Entrepreneur Award of the Monthâ€, the Meghalaya chief minister wanted to promote local entrepreneurs to upscale their business venture with active support and collaboration with the Meghalaya Institute of Entrepreneurship.
The Chief Minister has conceptualized an innovative social media and branding strategy to promote local entrepreneurs and their products. The Chief Minister acts as an ambassador to position their products in the market.
Majaw’s father, Nongkhlaw who is also backbone of the Smoky Falls Tribe Coffee, has undergone training in Bangalore in 2016 on coffee cultivation and processing. Nongkhlaw is now conducting awareness programme and shared his knowledge about coffee cultivation and process wherever he was invited as resource person.
In 2009, Dasumarlin Majaw had also started a coffee shop at Nongthymmai, but she stopped the business after getting a bank job.
However in 2016, Majaw became an entrepreneur and founded the Smoky Falls Tribe Coffee and started processing coffee by using a small machine, with an investment of Rs 80,000.
