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Expedite setting up of spices park, Minister tells Kerala

Photo: Vipin Chandran

APPEAL FOR ACTION: Union Minister of State for Trade and Commerce, Jairam Ramesh, addressing the meeting for presentation of awards for production and export of spices, in Kochi on Thursday.

NEDUMBASSERY: Union Minister of State for Trade and Commerce Jairam Ramesh has urged the State government to take immediate steps to expedite the setting up of the proposed spices park in Idukki.

Talking to The Hindu here on Thursday, he took a critical view of the State government’s efforts in setting up the park. He said that the Ministry had asked the Spices Board to acquire 15 acres of land and start the project immediately. The park is expected to open in September.

Staff Reporter writes:

The Minister said the Ministry of Commerce was keen on setting up spices parks in various States, but the State government had failed to acquire land for the project. It was in this background that the initiative was taken by the Spices Board, he said. He was here to distribute the awards for excellence in production and export of spices.

The Minister expressed surprise that the State government was not eager to acquire land for the project while it seemed interested in land acquisition for setting up a golf course.

He said several other States had gone ahead of Kerala and were ready to set up parks. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Meghalaya, Assam and Gujarat will have spices parks soon. He, however, denied recent media reports that the centre was considering relocating the spices park to some other State as Kerala had failed to meet the deadline set by the centre for land acquisition, which ended on February 13, 2008. “The spices park is going nowhere. But it is true that the State government is making slow progress in this initiative.”

The Minister underscored the need for setting up a Cashew Development Board to give impetus to the cashew sector.

The sector was a major employment generating one. Several countries were producing cashew on a large scale and India needed to improve its production.

Spices Board chairman V.J. Kurian said regional quality upgrading laboratories would be set up in various places. The lab at Bombay would start functioning from next month. More than 50 per cent of the exported products belonged to the value-added category, he said.

The Minister distributed awards under various categories. These included Cardamom award, Large Cardamom award, Vanilla award, Organic Vanilla award, and awards for excellence in Spice exports for the years 2003-04 to 2006-07.

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