We had a somewhat stressful start. A day in advance, Iona's flight was cancelled, and we had planned a very tight schedule for our trip. Fortunately, at the very last minute, everything turned out fine. The evening before departure, Iona was informed that an alternative flight had been found. It involved three layovers and a total travel time of 28 hours, but at least we could finally make the trip that had been on our wish list for so long!
They mainly work with indigenous spice varieties that thrive in the local conditions, making it easier to cultivate them entirely naturally and without pesticides. There had already been many introductory online meetings, and we had a really good feeling about this party, but we still wanted to see it with our own eyes!
Bird's-eye view of Kochi
Our journey began in Kochi. This city is an important port city and has been the center of the spice trade for centuries. Our homestay was located in the historic area of Fort Kochi. Somewhat touristy, but it was noticeable that this place has a lot of history. Because our time was limited, we booked a guide who spent the entire day with us. With his 'Ferrari tuk-tuk' - as he called it - we crisscrossed the city all day. Among other things, we visited tourist spice shops, wholesale spice dealers, a courtyard where spices were drying, and the historical museum. We also discovered that NedSpice has a factory in Kochi. We tried to arrange a tour there as well, but unfortunately, they didn't have time for us that day.
It was striking that many spice traders claimed all spices there came from the region, but what we did learn during this trip: don't believe everything they say. After asking various parties, it turned out that star anise, for example, came from Vietnam and not from India. One type of star anise grows in India, far in the North, in a politically unstable area. That star anise is easily recognizable because it has more points than normal star anise! More like a sun than a star, then.
In Kochi, we also learned to eat with our hands and discovered that people in South India love Dosas. A type of pancake, served in various forms throughout the day. Delicious with curry and different kinds of dips.
Both in the historical museum and in various churches, you could see how strong the influence of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) had been in this area. There was even a Dutch Cemetery, where hundreds of people of Dutch (and British) origin are buried. The Dutch conquered all Portuguese possessions in this area. The motivation behind the conquest was the spice trade. A goldmine for the Dutch economy.
It's quite bizarre to realize that this period, we are talking about around the year 1600, had such a profound impact on India and the global economy, while in the Netherlands, we rarely reflect on this history in daily life. Of course, you learn about it in history lessons, but do you ever consider, when buying a jar of pepper, that pepper was once worth more than gold? And that for a long time, spices were only for the very wealthiest? While farmers were exploited for this, and terrible things happened in various places around the world, all just to obtain spices.
Anyway, I digress. Although Kochi was impressive, it was not the main reason for our visit. The next morning, the alarm clock rang early again, and we took the train to Kannur, where we then took a taxi to Coorg. All in all, it was a considerable travel day. The taxi ride alone took about three hours and was mostly in the dark. Many winding roads and a few near-death experiences later, we arrived safely and soundly at a homestay in the evening, hoping for a good night's sleep. (Unfortunately: the mosquitoes disagreed).
South Indian Coffee Company
The next morning, we were picked up by Komal from the South Indian Coffee Company. Did you know that our business plan is inspired by This Side Up? They do for the coffee industry what we do for the spice industry. They call themselves 'The Good Middleman' and ensure that coffee farmers receive a fair price for their coffee beans. Through This Side Up, we connected with Komal from SICC. They also have some spices on their plantation and know a lot of farmers in the region. Iona and Komal had already been in contact by phone several times, so it was great to finally meet in real life!
The first stop was a plantation owned by a befriended farmer, David. A beautiful place where David lives with his parents. David's father is slowly handing over his responsibilities on the plantation to his son. The cardamom plants were a minor point of discussion within the family because they grow so poorly. David would prefer to stop growing them, but his father has a broader perspective than just commercial gain. It's also a matter of interest. Nevertheless, these plants were heavily sprayed, as people here believed it would be impossible to grow cardamom otherwise. So, not a good partner for us, but it was interesting to hear the arguments.
Food for thought
A good point of discussion was that everything nowadays has to be as organic and natural as possible, but this also creates tension for farmers. They need harvests to live on. As a consumer, you might have a very idyllic image of wild gardens where everything grows and blooms in harmony, but the fact remains that as a farmer, you have to intervene in nature to achieve certain results. And, of course, you can look into organic methods (expensive!) or natural, homemade remedies (time-consuming!), but a farmer must be convinced that this will yield more harvest or more value. Although, of course, there are also farmers who love nature, want to take the best possible care of it, and do everything completely naturally. But they are more the exception than the rule.
Our task as buyers, but also as consumers, is therefore to show that it pays off to work with natural resources. To pay premium prices for harvests that may not have the most beautiful looks (because that is often what it's about now), but which are fantastic in taste and grown without chemical junk. We have also noticed that smaller farmers often need help in the form of knowledge transfer, marketing, and sales. You might want to work differently, but then you also need to know how to do that best. And how to best sell your (carefully grown crops). This certainly made us think.
We concluded the tour with a delicious homemade lunch with David, his parents, and Akshay, Komal's husband. As far as food is concerned, we were incredibly spoiled during our trip! Spicy dahl, dosas in various shapes and sizes, biryani, salads, chutneys, dips – the table was laden. And of course, you want to taste a bit of everything. No punishment, but sometimes still quite a challenge ;-)
Small farmers in the mountains
The next morning, we drove into the mountains to visit some very small-scale farmers. They pick and sell what happens to grow on their land. Usually, they're not keen on outsiders on their land, but due to the good connections Komal and Akshay have built there, we were welcome. They work closely with them and try to help these farmers sell their spices, as they don't speak a word of English themselves and are therefore very dependent on local traders. And these traders don't offer a premium for naturally grown products. People want the spices to look uniform, and in the case of cardamom, for the pods to be as large and green as possible. This leads to a lot of fraud, for example, adding dye during the drying process. While the plants we saw here were truly beautiful! Healthy plants with large, green leaves.
But you could clearly see here that some farmers still lead very simple lives. A mud hut in the mountains, their own vegetable garden for vegetables, and not much else. Their skin is tanned and marked with grooves from hard work. The farmers in the area help each other with harvests and thus form a community, a social safety net, but their world is no larger than that.
The tea region of Munnar
After a long car ride, we arrived in Bangalore, the only major city we visited during our trip. Here we noticed that it can be quite hectic in India. Here you have to honk your way through traffic, what a noise! Fortunately, for us, it was just a transfer point. From here, we took the night bus to Munnar. Munnar is a gigantic tea region, where a lot of cardamom also grows. A beloved tourist destination because of the impressive views that the extensive tea plantations offer. We were lucky that we had booked an AirBnB outside the tourist area, on a hillside with, yes... cardamom plants! The owner was super helpful and also took us to his neighbor, an organic cardamom farmer. Here we discovered that the neighbor was part of a collective that helps farmers to cultivate organically. He worked entirely naturally. A mix of different types of leaves and sardines, for example, served as fertilizer. Rainwater was collected in a pond, where fish also swam. The fish provided extra nutritional value to the water and were also an additional source of income. Pests were kept at bay where possible by a fence of hibiscus plants. A super passionate man who was intrinsically motivated to farm organically. 'After all, we want to stay healthy and not ruin our bodies with toxic substances.'
And his cardamom chai was the tastiest we drank in all of India. His natural way of working literally bears fruit!
A meeting with HOPCL
Of course, we wanted to know the ins and outs of this organization that helps farmers with this transition to organic farming, so our kind AirBnB host arranged a meeting with the founder for us. We were allowed to visit his home, and he answered all our questions. He helps over 300 farmers with the transition to an organic and natural way of farming. The farmers receive courses, support each other, and are also assured of a market because they buy the spices from these farmers. It's great that these kinds of communities are developing in multiple places there!
On to Graamya!
Our last stop was our actual goal: Graamya Spices. This company was founded by Bhavesh and Annu. They are highly motivated to provide smaller spice farmers in their area with a better living income. Initially, they had the idea of involving these farmers in a tourism offering. Field tours, cooking experiences, camping with the farmer, that sort of thing. Then COVID came along, and this proved not to be a consistent business model. They decided to use their passion for natural farming (their family already had a tea and cardamom plantation) to help the farmers. By supporting them in the transition to a natural model and helping them sell their spices. In the long term, this ensures healthier soil, a better living environment, and structurally higher incomes.
Everything they do at Graamya is about finding balance in their cooperation with nature. By controlling pests, for example, you simply shift the problem. Pesticides upset the ecosystem, leading to the next problem that you then also have to combat.
A new factory
At Graamya, they remain committed to innovation and company development. That's why they are also happy to work with us, as this opens up the international market for their spices. The project they are currently working on is building a new factory. A facility where spices can be collected, dried, polished, and packaged. The traditional method of drying cardamom is very time- and labor-intensive. The large ovens are wood-fired, and someone has to be present 24 hours a day to keep the fire burning! Moreover, the outcome is not always consistent, and the processing method greatly influences the quality of the spices and thus the price they can fetch.
In the photos below, you can see the traditional cardamom oven and the new version that Graamya has developed. As we said, the entire family works in this company. The father is the engineer who develops these kinds of machines. They have been working with a prototype for a while and are now ready to take it to the next step. The new ovens are heated by electricity and do their job at the simple push of a button.
Remarkable contradictions
We not only viewed their plantations and the factory under construction but also visited other farmers. We gained a very good impression of the different working methods and the motivation behind certain techniques. The price of cardamom fluctuates enormously. This is another difficult factor that farmers have to consider. Traders can bid on harvests during an auction. If the price is low, it might be interesting for farmers to store spices and only bring them to market later, when they can get a higher price. However, the longer you store spices, the worse for the taste, of course. Moreover, they also remain without money. And they actually need that money to pay their workers, who receive weekly wages. In addition, the market is somewhat unpredictable, so holding onto harvests does not necessarily mean a higher price. Rather difficult considerations.
We had hoped to learn something about, for example, the influence of cardamom on our health, especially when it comes to the use of chemicals. There are rumors that many cases of cancer occur among farmers who work conventionally, i.e., with chemicals. That seems to us like a subject that should be thoroughly investigated! Unfortunately, that is not the case. They need about 10-13 years to research a new variety and try to standardize the guidelines for cardamom production. It was striking that about 6 chemicals fell within these guidelines and that the questions we asked about this were carefully evaded. They say that natural production methods, such as those of Graamya, are the future, but then they don't really act on their own statements. We also think that there are many parties who benefit from the fact that there are no official figures on the consequences of pesticide use. Quite a grey area, then.
As you can imagine, this trip made a huge impression on us and we needed some time to process all the information. Of course, we also tried to bring home as much recipe inspiration as possible. A collection of these recipes would be a great topic for a future blog, so you can look forward to that! But if you'd like a little taste in advance, try making this spicy Indian rice!
