How we’re navigating them, how they’ll affect you, and how you can continue to support our work.
+ Why we’re offering y’all free shipping site-wide through midnight on Sunday 4/13
Exactly a week ago, I woke up midway through my annual family vacation to frantic texts from several fellow business owners telling me to check the news.
To my horror, Trump had just announced global tariffs far beyond what any of us were anticipating. By the time you read this, tariffs of 26% on Indian imports (where 93% of our spices come from) and 44% on Sri Lankan imports (where our cinnamon and cloves are grown) will have gone into effect, fiercely cutting into our already minimal profit margins as a social impact small business.
Tariffs are a regressive tax, especially in the short run. They burden the households and small businesses at the bottom of the income and revenue ladder far more than those at the top. Second, just about every economist is in agreement that this move will hurt the American people more than anyone else, pushing inflation higher as costs rise and moving us further towards a recession.
This week, in an attempt to cut their losses, Apple flew 5 airplanes full of iPhones to the USA from India and China, smartly stockpiling inventory before the tariffs went into full effect.
Meanwhile at Diaspora, we’re right in the middle of harvest season. We’ve spent the past two months outlaying tremendous amounts of cash (carefully squirreled thanks to your holiday gift orders!) to our ~140 regenerative farm partners who are working overtime to get their crops processed and delivered to us. In parallel, we’re packaging and shipping their beautiful spices to all of you as fast as possible. Our products grow in the earth on nature’s schedule, so even if we could’ve commissioned 5 airplanes, there’s no way to stockpile fresh spices quite like iPhones on just a few days' notice!
In our nearly 8 years in business, we’ve never once lowered the prices that we pay our farm partners, only raised them. We continue to pay them an average of 4x ABOVE the commodity price, what we believe is a truly equitable wage for their beautiful spices. To date, we’ve paid over $2.5 million dollars directly to these small, regenerative farms. So, despite the tariffs, we are committed to not lowering prices on any of our farm partners. Doing so would be antithetical to our mission and values.
We also know that every single one of us is feeling the panic and pinch of the rising costs on our grocery bills and with each passing paycheck. So at this time, we won’t be not raising prices for you, our community, either. I don’t know what new curveball the future holds, but I can promise that we’re always walking the fine, squiggly line of making our spices as accessible to you as possible, whilst paying our partners as equitably as possible.
Most likely, this will mean that we won’t break even this year. We’re an incredibly lean, nimble and frankly wonderful team spread across India and the USA, and each team had many big and bright plans for this year that we’re all putting on pause until we know more.
In the meantime, we’d love your support, and we’d love it if you could refer as many friends and family members our way as possible. As a thank you, we’re offering free shipping site wide through midnight on Sunday. So please stock up, whether it’s just one tin of chai masala or a full pantry restock!
I’ll leave y’all with a beautiful note from our Byadgi chilli farm partner, Malleshapa Bisirotti, which was in response to us asking him what keeps him going in the face of climate change. His answer as a farmer is much the same as mine as a business owner - “Farming gives me food. It keeps my body healthy, my mind healthy, it keeps me connected to the land. In the big picture, it is difficult. In reality, one minute it is hard, next minute it is good, and the next minute it is hard, and the next minute is good. This is the nature of life!”
With love & in community,
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