MANIPUR : As a six-year-old, Pamreiwon Shokwungnao would knead dough to help her parents run a hotel. She went on to do a master’s in food technology from the Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences in Prayagraj. Her friends and relatives thought she would strive to land a government job, but she followed her life’s calling—entrepreneurship. Today, she is the proud owner of ‘Warm Delights’ and ‘Garden of Eden’—her pastry and herbal tea brands, respectively.
This Tangkhul Naga woman runs her businesses from her home in Manipur’s Ukhrul town, where she grew up. Her herbal tea has a customer base in Manipur, Nagaland, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, etc. The pastries are a delight for the locals’ taste buds. Pamreiwon, the sixth of nine siblings, was born into a lower middle-class family at Tashar village in Ukhrul district. Her parents raised them by running a modest hotel that served tea and puri. Seeing their struggle to make ends meet, she began making and selling doughnuts and cream buns in early 2018, when she was still in college.
Though the locals love cakes and pastries, shops selling such items were few and far between in Ukhrul town back then. Pamreiwon saw an opportunity. She underwent training from Ukhrul’s Krishi Vigyan Kendra and began making & selling them. She later also purchased a small oven at `16,000. As time rolled by, her businesses grew steadily, and she spent from her savings to buy another oven, three hand mixers, one Visi cooler and a small generator for a backup.
The 25-year-old continues to sell her cakes and pastries in Ukhrul town and its nearby villages. She gets bulk orders when there are events and gatherings. Her cake combos with bouquets from her backyard are high in demand during special occasions.
Pamreiwon, who has been a tea lover for long, launched her herbal tea brand last year. She worked as a volunteer at a local church during the Covid pandemic, preparing herbal tea with resources that were locally available—turmeric, herbs, pomegranate leaves, sticky rice and other spices.
“My fellow volunteers encouraged me to pursue it further seriously and make other tea varieties. After completing my master’s degree, I did research on herbal tea. That’s how my journey began,” says the entrepreneur who buys her herbs, turmeric, flowers and spices for herbal tea from local farmers. Pamreiwon washes them and dries them up naturally under the sunlight. She uses a machine for sealing. The herbal tea comes in sachets of 100 grams, each sold at `250.
As a child, she often heard her parents say that herbs and turmeric are good for health. Before exploring the tea business, she experimented with locally available resources. One of them was ‘Makrei’, a local rice variety that smells like buckwheat tea. She would make and drink tea by mixing this scented rice with turmeric and spices. “While I was in college, I started developing an interest in food processing.
There is a food processing unit in Manipur called ‘Meira Foods’. It is owned by a woman. I aspired to be like that woman one day,” Pamreiwon muses. She is assisted by her mother and one of her sisters, besides two young married women that she has employed. Ask her the secret about the growing popularity of her product, and the entrepreneur says, “People came to know of my herbal tea through word of mouth and social media.”
Her initial challenges in business were balancing family responsibilities with business demands, limited financial resources & infrastructure and managing high demand during peak seasons. But she has come a long way now. As the public has embraced her products, her business has seen massive growth.