Our Partnership in India

Some of our most important ingredients weren't available in certified organic quality when we went looking for them. Rather than settle for conventional sourcing, our team traveled, researched, and built the partnerships needed to bring them to life. In India, that work yielded two global firsts: the world's first certified organic castor oil, and the world's first certified organic mango butter — both sourced through our long-standing partner, the Castor Products Company, led by Nanalal Satra.

This partnership began in 2005. It continues today.

Organic castor oil — a world first.

Castor oil forms the base of our bath oils and appears throughout our skin care line. When we decided to transition to certified organic castor oil, we discovered it simply didn't exist anywhere in the world. So we set out to change that.

Our sourcing team connected with Satvik, an Indian NGO founded in 1995 to promote rain-fed farming suited to the arid Kutch region of northern India. After a devastating earthquake struck the region in 2001, sustainable, lower-cost farming methods became even more critical for local communities. The farmers were already following organic practices — they simply hadn't been formally certified.

With financial support and sourcing expertise from our team, the entire castor oil cultivation and processing chain received organic certification through the Institute for Market Ecology (IMO). In 2005, certified organic castor oil existed for the first time.

At the Castor Products Company, castor beans are cold-pressed without added heat, preserving the oil's natural integrity and purity. Today, the agricultural land of approximately 830 farming families is organically certified.

Fair for Life Certification.

Since 2017, our castor oil has also carried Fair for Life certification — a standard that encompasses human rights, fair working conditions, biodiversity, and sustainable agriculture. The premium paid for Fair for Life certification goes directly into a dedicated fund for the farming villages. Projects funded to date include a secondary school classroom that enabled local girls to continue their education without traveling 35 kilometers, a community drinking water tank, and equipment for village schools.

In 2019, a poor harvest left many farmers with little income. We responded by increasing our premium from 10% to 15% that year.

Organic mango butter — another world first

Mango butter is prized in skin care for its rich fatty acids, softening properties, and light UV protection — but it had never been produced in certified organic quality. The reason: even where organic mangoes were being grown, the valuable stones inside were being discarded or burned rather than processed.

Our sourcing team saw an opportunity. Working again with Nanalal Satra — who immediately understood the vision — we launched a processing project in 2008 and began the first production attempts in 2009.

The process is labor-intensive by design. After harvest, mango stones are dried in the sun, then carefully cut open by hand to extract the seeds. Because the rainy season follows closely after mango harvest, solar-powered drying was developed to minimize the use of non-renewable energy. An additional 40 seasonal workers are now employed specifically for this process — work that didn't exist before this project.

The result: the world's first certified organic mango butter, now used across select Dr. Hauschka formulas.

What mango butter does for skin

Rich and nourishing with a texture similar to cocoa butter, mango butter delivers fatty acids that help keep skin soft and supple, visibly reduce fine lines, and offer light natural UV protection — particularly effective on rough or dry skin.

A partnership built to last

Nanalal Satra has spent decades working to improve living conditions for rural farming communities in India. His approach — helping farmers organize, plan crops, and access organic certification — aligns with everything we believe sourcing should look like. We don't just buy ingredients from him. We invest in the infrastructure, the certification process, and the long-term viability of the partnership.

That's what it means to source with intention.