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Series of spices parks to come up

KOCHI: The Spices Board is planning to establish a series of spice parks in various States.

Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh announced the plan during the recently concluded spice congress in Goa. He said the parks would be established in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The parks, Mr. Ramesh said, can emerge as reprocessing hubs as well, for which the Board is preparing ambitious plans. The target is to reach a $10-billion export turnover in 10 years.

A new company promoted by the Spices Board, called Flavourit Spices Trading Ltd., is a step to promote professional marketing and value addition. Substantial investments will be made to develop and promote this brand in domestic and international markets.

The Spices Board is launching two new initiatives in mint in Uttar Pradesh and saffron in Jammu and Kashmir. The Minister said that spices immediately brought to mind exports. But, in reality, barring pepper, exports made up a small proportion of production. Slightly over half the pepper output of the country was exported, but the export shares in other spices were as follows: cardamom 6.5 per cent, chillies 16 per cent, ginger 1 per cent, turmeric 5 per cent, coriander 1 per cent, cumin 13 per cent, fennel 7 per cent and fenugreek 10 per cent.

India, he said, is the largest market for Indian spices and with an Australia being added every year to the country’s population, the domestic market will continue to play a pivotal role. This is so obvious that people lose sight of it often and think only of spices in the context of exports. In the years ahead, as the Indian market matures, exports cannot be separated from domestic sales.

In 2007-08, exports of spices from India are estimated at $875 million.

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