Here's how these Indian American entrepreneurs brought desi spices to the table

The past year has been one of the toughest ever for people across the globe due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It has also been a year of working from home, cooking from home and fewer trips to buy groceries and essentials. For Indians in the US, this often meant scarcity of ethnic food items, groceries and the comfort of home-cooked desi meals.
But despite the challenges, a few Indian American entrepreneurs have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to keep the supplies of desi food items, groceries, condiments and spices going without any snags. And now, as India grapples with the crisis of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, some of them are also stepping up to support their country of origin via their desi networks. Oakland-based Sana Javeri Kadri is an example.
In 2017, after working in the food industry for a decade, Mumbai-born Kadri launched Diaspora Co when she realised there was an opportunity to introduce the "incredible flavour and aroma" of the Indian-grown turmeric she grew up with to America. Selling products mainly via the company website as well as through retail and restaurant locations, her venture is not only to showcase the quality and flavour of single-estate spices grown on family farms, but to create a more equitable spice trade by working directly with the farmers and paying them fairly.
After launching the heirloom Pragati Turmeric in 2017, Diaspora Co currently works with 150 farm-partners and pays its farmers, on average, six times above the commodity price. "People were definitely craving familiar flavours in the past year in America and there was a demand from Indian Americans for Indian spices," Kadri said. "But I also think that, in a broader sense, everyone in lockdown was forced to cook more at home. People were more willing to experiment with new flavours and spices that they’d never tried before."
Last year, the challenge was sourcing spices from India as the country was under a nationwide lockdown. "We decided to pivot to a pre-sale model so that we could help our farm-partners in India stay in business. Once we put the call out to our community about pre-orders, it actually became a huge success,” the entrepreneur recollects. Diaspora Co raised $120,000 in a matter of days and made 100 per cent advances on all spice harvests by mid-April. Customers were willing to wait, sometimes for several months, for their spices. This year, the company has used the same pre-order model to raise $420,000 and pay it forward in advances to farm-partners in India.
Kadri, who was on a three-month-long sourcing trip across India just before the second wave of the pandemic struck, has paid big harvest advances to over 30 of her farm partners. Now, as an anxious daughter, she speaks to her parents -- who are based in Mumbai -- twice a day, but as a business owner in the US, she has mobilised over $345000 from her community of customers for a Covid-19 relief fund in the subcontinent and is even offering a 20% discount on spices to anyone who donates directly to a relief fund of any kind.
Brooklyn-based Chitra Agrawal, whose food journey started with documenting her family's recipes from North and South India on her blog, was trying to find her identity as an Indian American through food rooted in her Indian heritage. She later became an entrepreneur along with her husband to introduce her Indian recipes to a wider audience and launched Brooklyn Delhi, a brand which is available across the US at grocery stores as well as via the company's website.
The first products were achaars (Indian pickles), which originated from her own recipes and used produce from her farm share. "I've lived in San Francisco, Los Angeles and now New York City and the food I experienced in these cities has also shaped my point of view in the kitchen," Agrawal said. "For instance, I purposely developed my achaars to have the intense flavours I grew up loving but with less sodium than traditional recipes so they could be used in a variety of ways and more often in my kitchen -- not just with rice and dal but on sandwiches, with eggs, on mac and cheese, etc."
More products have been added, which include curry ketchup, curry mustard, mango chutney, Guntur Sannam hot sauce and a line of simmer sauces. "There was a significant rise in demand for our products during the pandemic because people were cooking at home more often and were also looking for new flavours to introduce into their meals. We are continuing to face supply issues and price increases due to the pandemic," she added. "For instance, a glass shipment that was expected to arrive in March, is now not arriving until October. So we have had to scramble on many occasions to find alternative sources of materials in order to continue fulfilling orders."
Agrawal is donating 50% of online sales at Brooklyn Delhi to GiveIndia for the month of May. The donation specifically will go towards distributing meals to families struggling with hunger during the second wave of Covid-19 in India.
Subziwalla.com, an e-commerce grocery delivery service across America for South Asian food, is leveraging its network of the large Indian American community to run panel discussions and Q&A sessions with experts on the Covid-19 pandemic for desis in the US and their family members back in India. "The current crisis has been devastating to watch as it has unfolded in India. I have lost members of my extended family and Subziwalla team members as well," said Sajal Rohatgi, one of the co-founders of the service. "I grew up in Delhi and I still have a good network for friends and family back home. I am in touch with them and helping them get leads for hospital beds and oxygen cylinders."
Rohatgi has personally donated money to some organisations in India and launched a fundraiser with a $50,000 target to help members of the Subziwalla team and their families based in the subcontinent who are suffering from Covid-19. The e-commerce platform, which was launched in 2018, grew exponentially because of the pandemic-related restrictions in the US last year.
"We have built a reputation of being a trusted source to access Indian groceries. During the pandemic, when other sites and stores were price gouging, we were concentrating on serving our customers and community. There was definitely an issue with the supplies coming from India, but we were transparent with our communication. We continue to see growth as the US moves towards opening the economy," he said. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic in the US, the company launched Subziwalla Kitchen, a line of homestyle breads and meals, in response to the need for healthy heat-and-eat items, .
Meanwhile, Anas Gandhi -- founder and president of Gandhi Foods Inc in Skokie, Illinois -- also saw a huge rise in demand in the April-June 2020 window for traditional food and spices from the Indian American community. The demand was fueled by the uncertainty and fear caused by the pandemic along with an awareness among the mainstream market about health benefits of various traditional Indian spices.
"The current crisis in India has definitely had an impact on us. Members of extended family and our business suppliers have been affected by the virus and we are suffering from a sense of helplessness. We’ve supported various charitable institutions to get oxygen cylinders and kept in contact with family and friends," Gandhi said. He has diversified his family business of electrical appliances to the e-commerce store for Indian spices and condiments with two brands -- TAJ Gourmet Foods and Zayd Organics.
Janaki Foods Inc, launched in 2008 by Mahalakshmi Srinivasan Iyer to sell south Indian batter in Chicago, today has a large factory and diversified products including south Indian and Gujarati snacks and sweets. There was a surge in demand for traditional products such as Murukku and Ribbon Pakoda during the pandemic last year. “We saw a sudden surge in demand and it was hard to keep up to it. But with time, we did take necessary precautions and changed our work model to adjust to the new unexpected change," said Nithya Iyer, who is the niece of the founder and helps run the family business.
While earlier, distribution was only through Indian grocery stores across the US, Janaki Foods recently launched an e-commerce store to help customers buy products without having to step out of their homes.