the association 2013

8 the
association
project weaves its
way from assam
to yorkshire
Jan Goswami discovers how one tea company’s scheme
has led to Assamese textiles being sold in the UK
“Assam tea gives Yorkshire
Tea its strength, and
malty flavour. But our relationship
with Assam goes
beyond tea.” Those are the
words on the website of
that well-known English
teabag brand.
A few years ago, buyers
from Yorkshire Tea were
touring the tea plantations
of Assam looking for leaves
that would give their brew
that “strength and malty
flavour”.
One they visited belonged
to McLeod Russel India,
where the Yorkshire Tea
buyers came across the
“ladies of the Bodo Handloom
Scheme”.
They –and their parent
company, Taylor of Harrogate,
were intrigued by the
“intricate, colourful designs
woven into cloth on a handmade
bamboo handloom”
and decided to start selling
the textiles into the UK
market.
Today, the Taylor of
Harrogate and Yorkshire
Tea websites sell 100%
cotton aprons that come
from the Bodo Handloom
Scheme (BHS) in Assam.
BHS was an initiative
started by tea estate owners
McLeod Russel India
as part of the company’s
corporate social responsibility
policy – a way to give
something back to Assam.
The scheme began in
1995 at Borengajuli Tea
Estate, Udalguri, Assam,
for the benefit of the local
women belonging to the
ethnic Bodo community.
McLeod Russel says the
project helps to promote
traditional weaving skills
and enables the women to
generate extra income
whilst working from home.
The company says: “This
has improved the standard
of living for hundreds of
families in the area.”
Trying to get more BHS
products into the UK
market is an ambition the
tea owners and they hope
that the likes of Taylor of
Harrogate will be willing to
become involved.
Doom Dooma district-born
Cren Sandys-Lumsdaine,
from McLeod Russel says
he is glad to see that the
likes of Taylor of Harrogate
are continuing to promote
the BHS aprons and wants
to diversify the products on
offer in the UK.
“I’d like to see the
Scheme make soft 'Home
Furnishing' which, in my
opinion, may have a more
retail friendly market,”
explains Mr Sandys-
Lumsdaine.
If the Bodo Handloom
Scheme can diversify,
perhaps it’s UK reach may
in the future not just be
online but in Britain’s high
streets.