While crops that bring money will be given protections easily, people often forget about lesser-known native medicinal plants. With this thought in mind, fourteen farmers in Wayanad district came together to safeguard indigenous medicinal plants in 1991. Little did they know that their charitable organisation would turn into a celebrated spice exporter around the world.
Vanamoolika, a cooperative with mostly women employees, has become a go-to source for many international food producers, including gourmet retailers and chocolatiers, for high-quality spices, rice varieties, coffee and other organic certified products. The organisation has around 30 stable European buyers for its products each year.
The group has trained around 250 women in the district to cultivate and market medicinal plants. "Initially the aim was to give awareness to people in cultivating and protecting the medicinal plants. Later, there was an excess in quantity and we helped the women to market them. Since ours was a charitable society, there were limitations in marketing. We also didn't compromise on quality. We sold only organically cultivated plants and plant products. So with our cost of production, we couldn't compete in the domestic market," PJ Chackochan, one of the founders and managing director of the organisation, narrates.
The group then decided to launch another company, Indian Organic Farmers’ Producer Company (IOFPC), and received licenses for marketing and export.
In 2009, they started exporting cocoa to Switzerland. The buyer company trained a few IOFPC members on how to process good quality cocoa for chocolateries.
"We had few students internees from European countries then. They introduced us to many other firms. If we provided good quality premium products, there would be more buyers," Chackochan said.
Vanamoolika exports coffee, cocoa, pepper varieties, turmeric, tiny green chillies (kanthari), pomelo fruit peel, nutmeg mace, clove, ginger, cinnamon, Malabar tamarind (Kudampuli), lemongrass and holy basil (Thulasi). Among the rice varieties exported are Wayanadan Thondi and Gandhakasala rice.
He noted that many European chefs visited the organisation directly and ordered their products. “We have a long-term relationship so they continue to order from us," Chackochan said.
Recently, Vanamoolika was in the spotlight after Rebel City Distillery in Cork, Ireland, owned by Robert and Bhagya Barrett, launched their first product – Maharani, a gin brand which used spices sourced from Vanamoolika, including pomelo fruit, cassia and nutmeg mace.
"The couple had visited us, I have also suggested some combination spices that can give a unique aroma. Now we provide them the products," Chackochan said.
Vanamoolika products are getting popular in European countries that Chackochan said Chackochan even retailers have started ordering from them.
What makes Vanamoolika stand out is that they don't compromise in quality. They also provide products as per the demands of the buyer. "There is no point in producing something as per choice. We need to produce what the buyer demands. We export the rice varieties to the buyers in the month of December only if they order in June. We cultivate according to their demands. Purely organic certified and no compromise in that," Chackochan says, noting the challenges of maintaining the standards for European food producers.
Moreover, transparency in the prices is another important feature of the organisation. Buyers are clearly informed of the farmers’ charges, production cost and profit margins. "We charge high prices because the production cost is high. Also we don't get a big profit for the same reason. Due to this, we don't have demand in the domestic market. We can easily source products from the local market, but next year we would lose our buyers," he said.
He added that the organisation pays the farmers well and that they value their efforts the most. "Farmers will cultivate crops meeting their standard only if they get profit. So we make sure that they are paid well," he said.
Vanamoolika sources their products from around 450 registered farmers. “We closely monitor these farmers. We buy products only from them. We have our field staff to assist the farmlands. We also arrange get-togethers for our buyers where they can also visit these farms," Chackochan said.
Aside from a few field staff, all others employees in the organisation are women. Additionally, around 250 women benefit from Vanamoolika herbals, as they sell plant-based medicines. They conserve around 700 medicinal plants and there are 60 products on the market under the brand.