Why We Started
India grows 80% of the world's turmeric. Yet most of what reaches consumers — even through premium health brands — is commodity-grade powder grown at scale for yield, not for curcumin content. The tribal farmers of Kandhamal, Odisha have been growing one of India's most potent turmeric varieties for centuries. Their product averages 3–5% curcumin — three to five times the national commodity standard. And for decades, it was selling at the same commodity price as inferior varieties, because the farmers had no direct access to conscious urban consumers.
UTKARA exists to close that gap. We source directly from the KASAM cooperative — the tribal farming collective that holds the Government of India's GI certification for Kandhamal Haldi — and bring their harvest to your kitchen without the middlemen that extract value at every step.
A Message from Our Founder
"I grew up watching my grandmother add haldi to everything — not as a wellness trend, but as an instinctive part of cooking and healing. When I started researching the supply chain behind what most people buy today, I was genuinely shocked: the turmeric in most homes delivers a fraction of the curcumin that the same quantity of properly sourced Kandhamal turmeric would provide."
"The farmers in Kandhamal had the product. Conscious consumers wanted the product. We built the bridge — with full transparency at every step: direct sourcing, third-party lab testing, and the GI certification that makes the origin claim legally enforceable."
"Every pack of UTKARA turmeric represents a direct relationship between a family in the Eastern Ghats and a kitchen somewhere in India. That's not a marketing line. It's the actual supply chain."
What We Stand For
- 🌿 No compromise on source. We source exclusively from KASAM-registered tribal farms in Kandhamal. We don't blend with lower-grade turmeric from other regions to reduce cost.
- 🔬 Third-party lab testing, every batch. Curcumin percentage, pesticide residues, heavy metals — all tested at NABL-accredited labs. The reports are public. You can read them on our Lab Reports page.
- 📋 GI-certified origin. Kandhamal Haldi holds a Geographical Indication tag issued by the Government of India — the highest legal proof of regional origin and quality standards for Indian agricultural products.
- 🤝 Fair farmer economics. By cutting out the middlemen, a larger portion of what you pay reaches the farming families who grew and processed the turmeric.
- 📦 Full traceability. Every batch has a code that maps back to the KASAM cooperative's sourcing records — which villages, which harvest season. Not a claim. A documented record.
The Kandhamal Difference
Kandhamal is a district in the Eastern Ghats of Odisha, at elevations of 900–1,200 metres. The combination of mineral-rich laterite soil, cool nights, and traditional farming practices — no synthetic fertilisers, no pesticides, indigenous curcuma longa cultivars — produces turmeric with a curcumin concentration that commercial farms cannot replicate.
This is why the Government of India granted it a GI tag in 2019. It's also why we source exclusively from here, and why we publish the lab data that proves it. Learn more about what the GI tag means →
Taste the Difference
GI-certified, lab-tested, directly sourced. 250g for ₹149.
Shop Kandhamal Turmeric