Spike in spice export as output touches all-time high

The most produced and exported spices are pepper, cardamom, chilli, ginger, turmeric, coriander and cumin. Out of these, the last five make up about 76% of the total production.

Bengaluru: India’s spice sector has been registering impressive growth over the past two decades, with production increasing at 7 per cent per annum and the area used for production at 4.4 per cent per annum, between 2005-06 and 2020-21, researchers said.

During the period, productivity has increased from 1.63 tonnes to 2.5 tonnes per hectare, according to data shared by Dr D Prasath, Project Coordinator, All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Spices, Indian Institute of Spices Research, Kozhikode, and Dr Sudheesh Kulkarni, Scientist (Horticulture), AICRP on Spices, Horticultural Research and Extension Centre, Sirsi.

Production in 2021-22 stood at 111.2 lakh tonnes in an area of 43.8 lakh hectares across India, while in Karnataka the figures were 9.6 lakh tonnes and 4,27,180 hectares of land, respectively.

The most produced and exported spices are pepper, cardamom, chilli, ginger, turmeric, coriander and cumin. Out of these, the last five make up about 76 per cent of the total production.

Quoting figures from both the Directorate of Arecanut and Spices Development, Kozhikode, and the Spices Board of India, the researchers noted that in 2020-21, the export of spices reached an all-time high by registering a growth of 30 per cent in volume. India’s share in spices export in 2021-22 globally stood at 1.5 million metric tonnes, accounting for US $4.102 billion, that is, 43 per cent in volume and 47 per cent in value.

The ICAR-AICRP's 34th annual group meeting on spices held last month identified four new spice varieties – Gujarat Ajwain-3, Hisar Kalonji-12, IISR Amrit - Mango Ginger, and Kamakhya 1 - black pepper – for cultivation and eight new technologies covering pest management, mixed cropping systems and intercropping of spices with vegetables.

The development of spice varieties and technology suited for production and export is one among the many strategies adopted by researchers to improve production of highly marketable spices in the country.

They recommend the creation of a comprehensive action plan to ensure food safety and sustainability in spice production at the grassroots level. The researchers also suggest adopting high-tech processing technologies to meet changing food safety standards of importing countries, besides training all stakeholders at various levels.