ASTA Recap

Petra and I recently attended the American Spice Trade Association annual meeting in beautiful Palm Desert, California. Not Coachella, though arguably there were fewer complex aromatics and fewer questionable hats.

While Alkemist tests nearly 2,000 plants and fungi, we have not historically played a deep role in the spice trade. But after this event, it feels like there may be fertile ground here. Or, to borrow from Dune: the spice must flow, but ideally with verified identity, clean supply chains, and fewer quality control sandworms.

ASTA put on an excellent conference: high-level, well-organized, and genuinely valuable. Beyond the great location, food, and hospitality, the biggest takeaway was a sharper understanding of the industry’s pain points: weather, tariffs, global crop pressures, and quality.

Quality especially stood out as a mature and central topic, which was encouraging. This is an industry that already understands the importance of trust, verification, and transparency.

Also hard to miss: the number of major Goliath labs in attendance. To me, that signals opportunity. The spice trade may be fertile ground for Alkemist to begin planting high-integrity quality control seeds for the future.

Huge kudos to the ASTA team for a beautifully run event. We left with pages of notes, new perspective, and a renewed appreciation for just how interconnected the botanical world really is.