Kishtwar Fed Kesar Producer Company Limited

We are based in Poochal village, over in Kishtwar. Our main spot is with Krishan Pal Parihar. As most people know, Poochal is a prime place for saffron. Growing kesar is a delicate business. You have to wait all year for those few weeks when the flowers bloom, and then everyone has to work fast to pick them before they wilt. It’s back-breaking work, leaning over the small plants for hours. Our company was formed so we could handle the drying and the sorting of the saffron together. We wanted to make sure the quality stays high and that we get a fair price for all that effort. We aren't some big factory. We do most of the work in our homes and meet at the office to weigh the harvest and pack it up. Saffron is basically in our blood here in Kishtwar. We don't have a marketing department or anything like that. We just rely on the fact that we grow some of the best kesar you can find. Sometimes we argue about the best way to dry the threads or how to store them, but we always figure it out. It’s a community effort. We’re just trying to keep the tradition going while making sure the farmers actually get paid what they deserve. It’s a quiet life, mostly waiting for the purple flowers to show up in the fields. We’ve been here for generations and hope to keep it that way.