‘Fake tea in markets’: Is Kashmir `noon-chai’ you have substandard?

Srinagar: ‘Samovar’ is a popular noon chai brand in Kashmir valley but counterfeits of the product have been found in Maharaja Bazaar and Batmaloo markets.

A statement from the Goodricke Group Limited on Tuesday said its brand protection team had found out that counterfeits of the brand were being openly sold in Srinagar markets. It said after the reporting of the same, police even conducted raids at the markets during which counterfeit brands were recovered.

“Shergarhi Police and Batmaloo Police conducted raids at Maharaja Bazaar and Batmaloo market at the end of December 2021. It was found that the accused were selling sub-standard tea using identical/substantially similar packaging of the SAMOVAR tea brand,” the statement said.

P T Krishnan, the Vice President- Branded Tea Division of Goodricke Group Limited said: “Goodricke Group invests heavily on the quality of its products and is strictly monitoring counterfeiting activities pan-India, to reduce the risk of honest customers unintentionally purchasing counterfeit products.  This is a serious offence, especially since we are dealing with ingestible products!”