Direct sourcing is a phrase that gets used loosely in the food industry. Sometimes it means the company visited a farm once and took some photos. Sometimes it means a genuine ongoing relationship with a named grower. Here is what it means for us, specifically.

What a commodity broker does

Most spices sold in Brazil pass through at least two or three intermediaries before reaching the consumer. A farmer sells to a local aggregator, who sells to a national distributor, who sells to a supermarket or a smaller wholesaler, who sells to you. Each step adds time and margin. By the time the spice reaches the shelf, it may be 12 to 18 months old. The broker's job is to standardise and blend, which means mixing lots from different farms and sometimes different countries to hit a consistent price point.

What we do instead

We buy from named farms and cooperatives. The Idukki district cardamom cooperative in Kerala has 23 member families. The Sharma family in Nagaur, Rajasthan grows our fenugreek on four hectares. The malagueta comes from a single producer in the Recôncavo Baiano. We know these people by name. Beatriz visits the farms in person twice a year. We pay above the commodity price because the quality justifies it and because we want these relationships to last.

How this affects freshness

When we buy directly, we know exactly when the spice was harvested and how it was dried. We can time our orders to arrive at our studio within a few weeks of the harvest. The cardamom we are selling right now was harvested in November 2025 and arrived in Belo Horizonte in January 2026. A supermarket jar of cardamom does not tell you any of that, and the reality is often much older.

The traceability on every jar

Every jar we sell lists the origin country, the farm or cooperative name, the harvest year, and the lot number. This is not marketing. It is the information you need to understand what you are buying. If you have a question about a specific lot, you can email us and we can tell you exactly who grew it, when, and how it was dried. We keep records for every lot we have ever stocked.

What direct sourcing does not mean

It does not mean every spice we sell is organic certified. Certification is expensive and many small farms cannot afford it. It does not mean we have visited every farm in person before buying: for some new suppliers we start with a sample purchase and a video call before committing to a full order. And it does not mean the prices are always lower. Direct sourcing often costs us more than buying through a broker. The difference shows up in the jar.

If you want to know more about a specific supplier, write to us at contato@cardamom101.com. We are happy to share what we know.