Hillroot buys from farmer cooperatives across India's eight Northeast states, grades every lot to one published standard and consolidates it at a single hub in Guwahati. For a manufacturer, an importer or a procurement officer, that means one contract, one specification and one set of documents — instead of ninety smallholders, a broker and a guess about origin.
Lakadong turmeric from Meghalaya carries among the highest curcumin measured anywhere. Karbi Anglong ginger in Assam and Mizo ginger in Mizoram each hold a Geographical Indication — a legal statement that the crop from those hills is distinct. Ginger is the One District One Product of Chandel and Pherzawl in Manipur. Chak-Hao black rice, Kachai lemon and Naga Mircha are registered Geographical Indications too, and Sikkim is the world's first fully organic state.
What the region has rarely had is a seller able to hand a buyer a graded lot, a batch certificate and a customs file in the same envelope. That is the job Hillroot does. The farming is not ours — it belongs to the cooperatives named on every pack. The grading, testing, consolidation and documentation are.
Everything below is a live line on the Hillroot shelf, which means a named cooperative already grows it, grades it and has been through a laboratory. Handloom and cane and bamboo join the list in 2027 and are not quoted yet.
| Product | Origin | Typical specification | Indicative bulk price · ex-Guwahati |
|---|
Final quotations are issued per enquiry, once crop, form, specification, packing, volume and delivery terms are known — no order is priced from this table. Capsules, soap and the gift box are finished retail formats and are quoted per unit rather than by weight; ask us. Fresh rhizome is seasonal and quoted only inside its harvest window.
Five stages, and you know at every one of them what has been agreed and what has been tested.
Tell us the crop, the form, the volume and the specification you have to hit. If we cannot meet it honestly from this year's harvest, we say so in the first reply rather than the third.
We despatch a sample drawn from a current batch, with its laboratory report. You test it against your own standard. What you accept becomes the written specification.
A contract fixes specification, tolerance, volume, delivery window and price. An advance against it releases the harvest purchase to the cooperative, which is what lets them hold the crop for you.
The lot is produced, graded and sent to an independent laboratory. Nothing leaves the hub without a certificate of analysis read against the agreed schedule, carrying a batch code that resolves to the plot.
Consolidated at Guwahati and despatched with invoice, packing list, certificate of origin, the laboratory report, and phytosanitary certification where the destination requires it.
Most of the friction in buying from the Northeast is not the crop. It is documentation, aggregation and freight. We took those on deliberately.
Independent laboratory testing for pesticide residue, heavy metals and the stated active content. The report travels with the lot and its batch code resolves back to the plot the crop grew on.
Certification under the National Programme for Organic Production, carried through the Mission Organic Value Chain Development for the North Eastern Region, plus licensing under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. Copies supplied with the first shipment and on every renewal.
Commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin and phytosanitary certification where the destination asks for it — prepared before despatch, so your broker is not chasing a supplier eight time zones away.
Own-brand pouches, cartons and bulk sacks printed to your artwork, with barcodes and shelf-ready cases for retail buyers. Where you would rather the cooperative be named, we print that too.
Lots from several cooperatives are aggregated at one hub, so a mixed order moves as a single consignment on one set of documents rather than five separate ones.
Advance against contract for a first order, and terms by negotiation once there is a trading history. Whatever we agree with you, the cooperative is settled within 48 hours of despatch — that part is not negotiable.
Different buyers need different things from the same lot. Tell us which of these you are and the quotation will be shaped around it.
Ready meals, beverages, bakery and sauces. What matters is that colour, moisture and heat hold to one specification across a whole year, not just the first drum.
Whole and ground lots with Geographical Indication origin that stands up to a register check, and a document set that clears customs without a query.
Kitchen packs on a standing monthly order, one invoice for a whole group of properties, and a card the front of house can hand a guest who asks where it came from.
Formulators who need the active content stated and tested per batch — curcumin in turmeric, zingiberene in ginger oil — with residue and heavy metal reports attached.
Turmeric, ginger oil and wild honey as inputs, supplied with a certificate of analysis and a traceable origin you can put on the outer carton without stretching the truth.
Private-label runs, own-brand artwork, barcodes and shelf-ready cases — with the grower named on the back of the pack, which is usually the reason the line sells.
State emporia, departments and institutional kitchens buying regional produce. Any relationship of this kind is proposed at present, not established — we will say exactly where a conversation stands.
The more specific the specification, the more useful the first reply. If you are not sure yet what you need, say that instead — we would rather send a sample than a sales note.