
Diaspora Co.
Oakland, CA
Diaspora Co. was founded in 2017 by Sana Javeri Kadri, who grew up in Mumbai and, after years working at the intersection of food and culture, came to a pointed realization: the global spice trade hadn't changed much since the colonial era. Farmers earned almost nothing, spices passed through ten or more hands before reaching a consumer, and what arrived on the shelf was usually stale. In 2016, Sana booked a one-way ticket home, spent seven months visiting over 40 farms, and launched the company with a single spice: Pragati Turmeric, sourced from a small farm in Andhra Pradesh.
Today, Diaspora Co. works with 150 farms across India and Sri Lanka, sourcing 30 single-origin spices and paying farm partners an average of six times the commodity price. Every spice comes from the most recent harvest, grown without pesticides and milled fresh each production run, so what reaches you is at peak quality and potency.
Diaspora Co. invests in farm infrastructure, works with heirloom and native varietals, and names each spice in direct partnership with the farmers who grow them. Queerness, cultural rootedness, and community sit alongside quality and sustainability as named values, and the brand takes its role in people's kitchens seriously.