India's spices exports are likely to rise 18 percent to $1.3 billion due to good demand for chilli, pepper and cumin seed, a top official said on Tuesday.
"We have fixed a target of $1.3 billion for 2008/09. We expect demand for chilli, pepper and cumin seed to remain strong," V.J. Kurian, chairman, Spices Board, told Reuters in an interview.
The country's spices exports touched an all-time high of $1.1 billion in 2007/08.
Chilli exports reached a record high of 209,000 tonnes during the period due to lower output in other major producing countries like China and Pakistan. Pepper exports also touched new highs of 35,000 tonnes due to short supply in the global market. However, the board has not fixed exports targets for individual spices for 2008/09, Kurian said.
The Board is also planning to invest 600 million rupees in six spice parks which will have an integrated operation for cultivation, post-harvest operation, processing of value-added products, he said.
"Spices farmers will be empowered with infrastructure facilities in the spices parks for cleaning, grading and storage of spices, which will result in realising a better price for their produce," Kurian said.
The federal government has approved six spices parks at Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu, Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, Mehasana in Gujarat, Jhalwar in Rajasthan, Idukki in Kerala and Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh.
The spices park at Jhalwar will be seed spices-focussed, while the park at Idukki will be mainly for cardamom and pepper and the Guntur park will be chilli and turmeric-specific.
The spices park at Chhindwara, which will have a dehydration unit for garlic and garlic products, will be commissioned during July, he said.
The Spices Board is planning to replant small cardamom in 25,000 hectares in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamilnadu, while in case of large cardamom 10,000 hectares will be replanted in Sikkim and West Bengal, he said. In addition to replantation, 25,000 hectares will be brought under rejuvenation programme. India is the world's second largest cardamom producer. Kerala accounts for 70 percent of the country's total production followed by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Cardamom production is expected to be doubled in the next 5-8 years because of the massive replantation and rejuvenation programme, Kurian said.
India produced about 7,700 tonnes of cardamom in 2007/08.
Source: Reuters
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