Rajah Banerjee

Swaraj Kumar (Rajah) Banerjee is a renowned tea producer and environmentalist who has significantly influenced the Darjeeling tea region with his sustainable production methods and social reforms. In 1998, his former tea garden, Makaibari, became the first in India to receive organic certification, followed by being the first tea producer in the world to achieve Demeter certification for biodynamic farming in 1993. In 2014, his tea set a world record for the highest-priced tea ever sold, and in 2015 Prime Minister Narnedra Modi presented his tea to Queen Elisabeth II of England as a gift. In 2018 he founded a new company called “Rimpocha” which aims for organic tea production and empowerment of women.