Sourcing botanicals from India

Most sourcing problems are not quality problems. They are specification problems: the buyer and the supplier never agreed what "good" meant.

Ask for the botanical name

Common names drift between regions. Tinospora cordifolia is Giloy in Delhi and Amrita elsewhere; an order placed on the common name alone can arrive as a different plant entirely.

Ask what happens at the port

• Who holds the goods if a shipment is flagged?
• Who pays demurrage?
• What is the fallback if a container misses its vessel?

Ask for the lead time twice

Once for the material, once for the paperwork. They are rarely the same number, and the second one is the one that slips.