Relationships matter, especially when trying to create additional value for what herbs are being grown. Fostering those relationships was the rationale behind the Sustainable Herbs Initiative (SHI) Toolkit 3.0, comprised of eight chapters that discuss topics like sourcing principles to mapping sourcing risk.
The work for the toolkit was created in partnership with Nikita Agarwal, product manager at Herb Artizan.
“It’s based on two years of working group conversations and learning lab conversations and in-person learning journeys from the Sustainable Herbs Initiative,” said Ann Armbrecht, SHI founder and director. “I don’t want those just to be conversations where we keep having the same conversation over and over. The idea is to hear and listen to what we’re learning and then share that learning and take action.”
She added that this includes shifting from transactional to more reciprocal, respectful relationships where the focus is not on the cheapest material but rather how to build resilience for the stakeholders along the supply network.
“These are the best practices that everybody knows, they’re talked about a lot,” Armbrecht said. “Now the next step is finding case studies where that’s happening, documenting the challenges, documenting what works, and really putting the ideas in the toolkit into practice.”
Supplier visits
One chapter in the toolkit describes what a supplier visit should look like. SHI says when a buyer visits a supplier it should be to strengthen relationships and improve decision making as well as to better understand the realities on the ground to “facilitate responsible trading.”
“A good visit helps buyers and suppliers see the full context behind quality and price, bring up constraints that don’t appear in contracts or audits, align expectations before problems show up in the market, and build a shared sense of responsibility for outcomes,” according to the toolkit.
Visits should not encompass surprise inspections because they create fear and performance anxiety. Additionally, these visits should avoid:
- New demands with no support. A buyer adds requirements but keep price and lead times unchanged.
- Disruption during peak season. A visit can pull people away from harvesting and processing when every hour matters.
- A buyer “audits” what they already decided to buy, then leave.
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The result of the visits should include a conversation on pricing or new support offered. The new knowledge gained should then be carried into the buying company so what was learned on the visit does not disappear when staff is changed.
The visit should be respectful and not extractive of the supplier’s time, Armbrecht said.
“It always surprises me when companies say they don’t have time to visit their suppliers or the resources,” she added. “It does not cost that much, right? I mean, how much does a social media campaign cost or how much is being spent on so many different things like going to trade shows?”
Fair pricing
When it comes to promoting fair pricing, the idea is to create more communication about why the price is what it is to show that there is a bigger picture surrounding the value.
“When we were talking about what topics to address in the monthly meetings, cost, money kept coming up,” Armbrecht said. “And so we decided we should talk about money head on. This led to a whole chapter that’s in the toolkit around cost.”
In True Costs and Fair Pricing, the mission is to “make pricing transparent and fair so producers can stay in business, harvesters are paid on time and buyers understand what it takes to support the whole system.”
Assessing true costs includes the cost of investing in soil health, drying and redrying, sacks and pallets, transport from remote forests, fuel and electricity, testing, permits, certifications, and often small but steady requests from communities like a fence, a meeting hall, or a new sack of seed. According to SHI, these relationship costs stabilize supply but are invisible in market spreadsheets.
“What I have observed, it’s pressure on price that doesn’t account for the complexity and the risk [suppliers] are holding,” Armbrecht said. “Changing weather, changing rains, things coming at different times, drought, now fires…So I feel like in so many ways, we are at a make-or-break point. And for me, the work we’re doing is a focus on building better relationships with those who are producing and processing the herbs. But I feel like there’s so many other things that need to be done, too.”
