02/08/2026
Here’s a true story for you!
From time to time, I have to depend on other spice traders to procure spices that are traditionally not grown in India. One such spice is paprika.
Grown mostly in Spain and Hungary, these countries hold the gold standard for paprika, given their climatic conditions, soil, and perhaps for their traditional knowledge of cultivating and post-harvest processing.
So, on one of my regular visits to get supplies from a shop owner in Sydney who also deals in bulk, I purchased some paprika that was clearly labelled as a product of Spain.
As I approached the shop counter to pay for the goods, the owner went through my basket, he took out the bags of paprika, scanned them, and said, “Sorry, Divij, this time I am giving you Chinese paprika instead of the usual Spanish variety that you always get.”
I just could not believe what the shop owner had just said! I quickly flipped through one of the packets and showed him the label that clearly stated the product's origin as Spain.
That’s when there was an awkward silence for a few seconds, and I saw the look on his face change. He went on to explain that the supplier had told him that all his paprika lots were coming in from China.
I always had my doubts about product origins and purity levels in the market from very early on after entering the spice trade. But seeing it in action right in front of my eyes!
It has always been an uphill battle for me to find trade/wholesale buyers, as their buying prices were too good to be true.
This made me scratch my head and wonder where I was going wrong. I would spend hours combing the internet for pricing information and then number crunching, but the numbers just would not add up!
This is not the first instance, which made me question the authenticity of the product. Navigating so many shelves across stores, I have come across many questionable products.
Cumin powder, light brown in colour, almost like sand.
Fennel powder, which completely lacks the green colour that fennel seeds display.
Yellow mustard powder, literally off-white in colour.
The crux of the story: “You just cannot trust the label”
