Commodity India - Comprehensive Commodity Intelligence · The U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act Means Changes for Spice Exporters Cheryl Deem Executive Director American Spice Trade

Dear Patrons,

Greetings and best wishes!

It all started six months ago with a small brief-‘Can we summarise the recent developments in spices sector on the occasion of World Spice Congress.?’ Little did we realise at that time the enormity of the task. Every aspect of the global spices industry is undergoing transformation. Production ecosystem is shifting due to a variety of reasons- weather, pest & diseases, soil health, cost and availabilityof labour, political unrest, climate change and so on. The level and sophistication of value-addition at origin is on the rise. The extent and scope of cross-border trade is on an ever-expansion mode. As much as the production, the consumption base too is shifting from the ‘traditional west’ to ‘increasingly relevant east’. The emphasis on quality, health and food safety systems has never been so high. Rightly, the Codex Alimentarius Commission has not only formed a separate commit-tee called, Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs, but also has chosen the occa-sion to have the first session of the committee in Kochi on the eve of World Spice Congress. There are developments every single day in this industry. Truly remarkable, indeed!

In our attempt to make the yearbook relevant, we sought the help of all stakeholders – researchers, producers and processors, machinery suppliers, food safety consultants and regulators- from government and private. We were overwhelmed by their support in this effort. As you may see, each of the contribution from our experts is of very high quality and relevance for the industry. I take this opportunity to profusely thank each one of them for their valuable insights and invaluable time spent in supporting this initiative. I also take this opportunity to thank all the sponsors and advertisers who have placed their trust on us and supported us as always. Our special thanks to the government organisations in India and abroad, that lead the change in the spices industry. Our staff – research and the marketing teams – has worked tirelessly on this project, with highest commitment and dedication. I thank them all for their contribution. Lastly, it is you, our patrons, who continuously drive us in bringing out such special publications periodically. We salute you and will always remain committed to serving your interest.

Thank you very much and best wishes

G Srivastava

G SrivatsavaPresident

Vinayak MeharwadeVice President

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The U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act Means Changes for Spice Exporters

Cheryl Deem Executive Director

American Spice Trade Association

On January 4, 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) into law, marking the largest over-haul of food safety regulations in the United States since 1938. This new law will significantly impact the international community importing into the U.S. While many of the final regulations are still being developed, we do know some areas that the spice industry should focus on and there are important steps for exporters to be taking now to prepare.

FSMA places new controls on im-ported food and enhances the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) enforcement powers. There are new responsibilities for all com-panies that produce food that will be consumed in the U.S., including spice companies. Following is an overview of the key areas that impact everyone in the supply chain.

New Requirements for All Food FacilitiesFacility Registration must be re-newed every two yearsBefore FSMA, all facilities that manufactured, processed, packed, or held food for consumption in the

U.S. were required to register with FDA. Beginning in 2012, companies were required to renew their facility registrations every two years during the fourth quarter of every even-num-bered year (i.e., 2012, 2014, 2016). As part of the facility’s registration, each company will be required to al-low FDA to inspect the facility.

Food Safety Plans RequiredAll registered facilities must develop and implement food safety plans analyzing hazards and detailing risk-based preventive controls to reduce or prevent food safety hazards. Preventive controls include sanitation procedures, employee training, an environmental monitoring program, food allergen control program, a recall plan, current Good Manufactur-ing Processes (cGMPs), and supplier verification activities. Facilities are required to update these food safety plans with each significant change in operations, or every three years, whichever occurs earlier, and must have copies of these plans available for inspection by the FDA. Signifi-cant amounts of documentation are required to demonstrate compliance. While the regulations are still being developed, small businesses, with

FSMA places new controls on im-ported food and enhances the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) enforcement powers. There are new responsibilities for all com-panies that produce food that will be consumed in the U.S., including spice companies.

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sales of less than $500,000 annually to local customers, may be exempt from some of these conditions.

Increased Frequency of Facility Inspections FSMA mandates increased frequency for facility inspections, which must be conducted every three years for high-risk facilities and every five years for low-risk facilities located in the U.S. FDA also is required to increase the number of international inspections. FDA will conduct about 1200 international inspections annu-ally, focusing on products that present a higher risk (like spices).

According to an analysis by food law experts at law firm Hogan Lovells, FDA has offered some insight into the three ways a facility may be catego-rized as high-risk:

Product Category Alone:• Based on history of Class I recalls and foodborne illness outbreaks for any food in that category.Product Category Plus Compli-•ance History: Based on a history of Class I recalls or foodborne illness outbreaks for the food cat-egory and no prior FDA inspec-tion for the previous 5 years.Compliance History Alone:• Based on a single violative in-spection or a series of inspections where 483s were issued.

The agency has not issued any specif-ic details as to what food commodity categories are likely to trigger a high-risk definition and is not expected to release any publically-available list

of high-risk facilities or categories. However, the agency indicated that it will define categories broadly which could subject many facilities to the high-risk designation.

New FeesIf a re-inspection is required after a deficient inspection, the company is obligated to pay for the re-inspection. This includes international inspec-

tions, meaning if an international facility needs to be re-inspected, the costs of the inspection including FDA staff hours and travel time from the U.S. to the foreign facility will now be collectable by FDA.

New Controls on Imported FoodFor the first time in the history of

U.S. food safety, food and spice companies importing from outside the U.S. now have responsibility to verify that their foreign suppliers have ad-equate controls in place to ensure that the food they produce is safe. FDA has established a number of programs for importers to achieve that goal.

ForeignSupplierVerificationSome of the most critical changes which are of greatest importance to the Indian spice industry are the new regulations concerning imported foods, under the Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP). Import-ers of food into the US must verify that all imported food and food ingre-dients are safe and produced under processes that provide a comparable level of safety to U.S. laws and regulations. Verification of foreign suppliers may involve supplier audits, reviewing records, and requiring lot-by-lot certifications of compliance. In addition, the FDA may now require third-parties to audit certain high risk overseas production facili-ties to provide an import certification as a condition of importation. If imported food lacks certification, the FDA may choose to refuse its admis-sion into the U.S.

VoluntaryQualifiedImporterProgram A new program under FSMA is designed to make it easier for certain companies to expedite entry of their products in to the U.S. Require-ments for this program are still being developed.

For the first time in the history of U.S. food safety, food and spice

companies importing from outside the U.S. now have responsibility to verify that their foreign suppliers have adequate controls in place to

ensure that the food they produce is safe. FDA has established a number of programs for importers to achieve

that goal.

Previously FDA could merely re-quest that a company recall contami-nated product. The FDA now has the authority to order the recall of these products if a company refuses to do

so. The FDA will continue to provide the company with an opportunity to cease distribution and recall a prod-uct voluntarily, but if they fail to do so, the FDA can issue a recall order

and fees will be assessed

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FSMA Grants FDA Enhanced Oversight and Enforcement PowersFSMA gives the FDA enhanced oversight and sweeping new enforce-ment powers, including the ability to suspend a company’s registration, order mandatory recalls, and have broader access to records. FDA’s en-forcement authority also was signifi-cantly enhanced in the area of recalls. Previously FDA could merely request that a company recall contaminated product. The FDA now has the authority to order the recall of these products if a company refuses to do so. The FDA will continue to provide the company with an opportunity to cease distribution and recall a product voluntarily, but if they fail to do so, the FDA can issue a recall order and fees will be assessed

If FDA believes that food manufac-tured, processed, packed, received, or held by the facility has a reasonable chance of causing serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals, FDA now has the power to suspend that facility’s registration. If a facility’s registration is suspended, it cannot import food to or make food in the U.S.

FDA has also been instructed to de-velop a traceability program in order to more effectively locate the source of contaminated food in a supply chain. To begin this process, pilot

projects were conducted and one of the projects included a spice to exam-ine current spice industry traceability programs. FDA is currently working on a report to Congress regarding these pilot projects and then will work on new regulations to enhance the traceability system. As part of the new traceability regulations, FDA may require increased record keeping for high-risk foods.

Conclusion The U.S. Congress recognized that this massive expansion of food safety authority cannot be successful if done alone, or in a vacuum. FSMA builds upon a system of collaboration al-ready in place between the U.S. FDA and other government agencies, both domestic and international. Congress intended for the U.S. FDA to work together with partners, including the international community, in an integrated way to achieve the goals of a safe food supply.

FDA has made an effort to ensure information is available on its Web site and is easily accessible for every-one this new law will impact. There are Frequently Asked Questions and other information that may be help-ful, including a number of documents that have been translated into other languages. Complete details can be found on the FDA FSMA website at www.fda.gov/fsma.

Additional information can be found on the ASTA Web site at www.astaspice.org. ASTA is also work-ing to provide education to the spice industry, both members and non-

members in the U.S. and in supplying countries. A Webinar series on the key rules has been developed and is available for sale on the ASTA Web site. These Webinars include key advice, such as how to prepare for an FDA audit and what to do now to prepare for the new rules to come completely into effect.

FDA has also been instructed to de-velop a traceability program in order to more effectively locate the source

of contaminated food in a supply chain.

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Environmental Challenges in Spice Cultivation and Mitigation Measures

M Anandaraj, R Dinesh, V Srinivasan, T John ZachariahIndian Institute of Spices Research

India is known as the ‘Home of Spices’ and still continues to hog the lime light as far as spice cultivation, production and export are concerned. No wonder, history shows that spices have played a hugely important role in the European Renaissance, and supplier for most of the countries in Europe was India. The estimated growth rate for spices demand in the world is around 3.19%, which is a shade above the population growth rate. There are about 109 spices listed by International Organization for Standardization and India grows about 60 of these spices.

While India remains a major player in spices, it is important to note that there are insurmountable environ-mental challenges that interplay to make spices cultivation arduous. Some of the major challenges include poor/ degraded soils, debilitating diseases, prolonged drought, incon-sistent rainfall, chemical residues in the produce, aflatoxin contamination, adulterants etc.

Among these, the major factor that threatens to doom spices cultiva-tion especially in Kerala State is soil acidity. A recently concluded project

by the Kerala State Planning Board involving analysis of more than 2 lakh samples from all the districts of Kerala State has found that soil acidification has assumed serious pro-portion in the state with 91% of the samples testing positive for acidity, of which 54% of the samples tested for strong to very strong and extremely acidic reaction. In soils under spices, around 40% of the soils tested were strongly acidic, and another 40% were moderately acidic. This can be attributed to heavy input of chemical fertilizers without regular application of lime. In fact, to neutralize acidity, application of lime or dolomite has been the general practice with very good success. In case of black pepper, we recommend regular application of lime (500 g to 1.0 kg per vine) in alternate years. For ginger and tur-meric, application of lime @ 2-3 t/ ha and for tree spices, 1-2 kg lime/ tree are recommended.

Most plant nutrients are optimally available to plants within the 6.5 to 7.5 pH range, and this range of pH is generally very compatible to plant root growth. However, under strong and extremely acidic conditions (pH <4.5) such as the one encountered in

...there are insurmountable envi-ronmental challenges that interplay to make spices cultivation arduous. Some of the major challenges in-clude poor/ degraded soils, debilitat-ing diseases, prolonged drought, in-consistent rainfall, chemical residues in the produce, aflatoxin contamina-tion, adulterants etc.

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54% of the soils of Kerala, nutrient availability to the crops is severely affected. While major nutrients like nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) are relatively less affected, phosphorus (P) becomes less available to the crop. Most of the other nutrients (Ca, Mg, Zn, Cu, B, Mo etc) tend to be less available when soil pH is very low, and in fact are optimally avail-able at pH 6.5 to 6.8.

In general, under acidic soil condi-tions, phosphate ions react with alu-minum (Al) and iron (Fe) to form less soluble compounds and its availabil-ity to the crop is severely hampered. This is a common occurrence in the world over. Contrarily, this does not seem to be the case in Kerala, where 62% of the soil samples though acidic have been found to possess very high available P levels (>25->100 kg ha-1) and P deficiency (<10 kg ha-1) was observed in only 19% of the samples. Such toxic levels of P are attributed to injudicious/ high input of P contain-ing chemical fertilizers, without taking the recommended levels into consideration.

In acid soils (pH < 6), nitrification is slow, and plants with the ability to take up NH4+ may have an advan-tage. Besides, the survival and activ-ity of symbiotic, non symbiotic and free living N fixing bacteria declines as soil acidity increases. In spice soils, the levels of N and K are low to medium in 80% of the soils, applica-tion of 5-10 kg of FYM/ compost/ composted crop residues along with biofertilizers and need based ap-plication of N fertilizers are recom-

mended. In case of K, application of recommended dose of K or 125% of dosage and additional foliar spray of sulphate of potash (1-2%) is advised. In these soils, P toxicity can be man-aged by reducing P application rate by 50-75% based on the status or by skipping P application for a year or two, when the levels are very high.

In case of secondary nutrients (Ca and Mg), 60% of the spice soils had adequate Ca levels, while 30% were found to be low. Conversely, 80% of spice soils showed Mg deficiency. Application of dolomite to correct soil pH would most likely help in en-hancing Ca and Mg levels in the soil. However, application of magnesium sulphate (150-200 kg/ha) is recom-mended for black pepper, turmeric and ginger

Though organic carbon would ap-pear to be at sufficient levels, a large proportion of these organic substrates become passive since their exchange sites are dominated by Fe and Al ions that are irreplaceable. Another innate problem in acid soils is the dominance of fungal population especially plant pathogenic fungi. Under such circumstances beneficial bacterial population find it very dif-ficult to survive. The most affected microbial community are the plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) that play significant roles in nutrient mobilization and biocontrol. For instance, the acid soils under black pepper are a haven for the foot rot causing pathogen Phytophthora capsici.

Plant diseases result when the host is susceptible to a disease-causing pathogen due to favorable environ-ment for the pathogen to dominate. This apparently means that the pathogen can be stopped by mak-ing the environment unfavorable for pathogenicity.

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This highly feared pathogen has been one of the major reasons for death of black pepper vines in many countries. Management of this pathogen in the field is largely through cultural prac-tices (field sanitation), prevention of water stagnation, fungicide applica-tion (metalaxyl-mancozeb mixture, or drenching with copper oxychloride or spraying with Bordeaux mixture) and the use of resistant (or tolerant) varieties. However, none of these methods can completely cure the vines of this disease if the pH of the soils is not buffered using lime or dolomite. Plant diseases result when the host is susceptible to a disease-causing pathogen due to favorable environ-ment for the pathogen to dominate. This apparently means that the pathogen can be stopped by mak-ing the environment unfavorable for pathogenicity. Many intervention practices (fungicides, fumigants, etc.) focus on taking out the pathogen after its effects become apparent. However, it is essential to make the environ-ment less disease-favorable and the host plant less susceptible. For this to happen, judicious water management assumes great significance.

In perennial spices, it is vital that we provide adequate water dur-ing dry spells and at the same time prevent water stagnation during wet spells which predisposes/ weakens the plants to soil borne pathogens. Further, the changing rainfall pat-tern especially the lack of summer showers results in failure of black pepper. Therefore, summer irriga-

tion becomes an utmost necessity. It should be noted that prolonged drought during 2012/13 and excess rainfall during 2013 was one reason why many of the nutmeg plantations were hit hard.

As plants and soils have become sicker, growers have responded with newer and more powerful chemicals in an effort to kill P. capsici. While it may seem the logical course of action, chemical intervention only serves to make things worse over time. Many pesticides reduce the diversity of soil life even further. Our studies in diseased black pepper plantations of Wayanad have irrevo-cably proved that management of this pathogen using cultural and chemical methods is largely successful when the soil pH is rectified using liming materials.

Overall, environmental constraints do hamper spices cultivation and production in the growing countries. Changes in climate and subsequent drought or excessive flooding are macro-level phenomena that would be tackled through appropriate tech-nologies that combine conservative agriculture with cutting edge sci-ences. But the immediate worry is our soil resources that are finite and prone to degradation by land misuse and mismanagement.

Lack of response to inputs, decline in above and below ground biomass, reduction in activity and species rich-ness of soil biota, decline in soil or-ganic matter and enhanced pests and diseases due to lack of plant favoring

microorganisms etc are presently common occurrences in all arable soils including those under spices. While the normal response would be to encounter these challenges through pro-active measures especially chemical methods, a more practical approach would be to attenuate these challenges by scientifically enhanc-ing the soil quality by restoring the physical, chemical, and biological processes.

Pre-emptive measure should in-clude buffering soil pH, enhancing C sequestration, enhancing nutrient use efficiency, soil test based nutrient management and overall soil quality improvement to ensure crop health which in turn would ensure farmers wealth. Nevertheless, it is impera-tive to note that preventive measures which limit the onset of soil degrada-tion processes are more effective than adoption of the restorative techniques after the process has been set in mo-tion.

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Significant Changes in the World Pepper Supply SideS. Kannan

Executive DirectorInternational Pepper Community

The global supply of pepper has been registering a fluctuating trend for the last 50 years. Pepper is one of the most volatile commodities traded internationally. In the recent years, more than fluctuation in supply and demand, market sentiments play a major role in directing the price movements of pepper

Due to changes in the climate condi-tions and Pest & Diseases problems during the last four years, production of pepper in the traditional producing countries have declined, when the de-mand for pepper and pepper products has grown consistently at above 8% per year.

Major changes noticed are:Increase in export value from • USD 378 million in 2001 to USD 1,800 million (365% increase) in 2013.Farm gate price per kg of pepper • raised from US$ 1.37 prevailed during 2005 to US$ 6.88 in 2013 (400% increase)Though the world production • registered an increase of only 20,000 MT in 12 years from 2001, the Vietnam production of pepper alone reached 120,000

MT registering 100% growth over the last 10-12 years.The total export from pepper • producing countries increased to 250,000 tons in 2013 from 201,000 tons achieved in 2001 (24% increase).The world Production has in-• creased to 340,000 tons in 2013 from 320,000 tons achieved in 2001 (6% increase).Significant development in the • quality upgradation and certifi-cation system in the producing countries in the last 5 years.Necessary infrastructure imple-• mented at source countries for meeting the processing, packing and food safety requirements of the importing countries.Significant increase recorded in • the consumption of pepper in Asian CountriesIncreased usage and application • of pepper in Aurveda in India, Jammu in Indonesia and other use of medicinal properties.Applications of chemical fertil-• izers and pesticides for achieving higher yield, controlling pest & diseases have been widely no-ticed in the pepper gardens.New entrants in the field: viz. •

Due to changes in the climate condi-tions and Pest & Diseases problems during the last four years, production of pepper in the traditional produc-ing countries have declined, when the demand for pepper and pepper products has grown consistently at above 8% per year.

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Cambodia, Madagascar, etc. entering in pepper production in a big way. About 100 ht has been newly planted in Cambodia dur-ing 2013/14.UAE emerged as a major hub • for disbursement of pepper to Middle East & African countries.The cost of labour for harvesting • increased to USD 8.50 per day and even at this price adequate labour force not available during the harvesting months. Presence of chemical residue • in pepper started creating food safety and quality issues. Hence, continuous education on GAP and GMP as well as the bad ef-fects of using chemical fertilized required to be provided to the pepper farmers and processors.Introduction of pepper in new • areas to be through Organic farming methods and cultivation practices.Virus detection system of mother • plant recommended for ensuring quality planting material for new planting / re-planting.Pest & Disease and soil infection • are the major problem for lower yield in the traditional pepper producing countries. Hence, integrated pest & disease man-agement system as well as field demonstrations for corrective

measures are expected to revive the pepper gardens.Medicinal property of pepper • leafs and roots for skin diseases, macular relaxing etc becoming popular.The area expansion for pepper • cultivation should be limited to meet the growing annual consumption of 8 to 10%. Which means about 10,000 ht may be required to be brought under new planting or re-planting in the next 3 to 5 years. Subsequently the area may be reduced to around 5000 ht.Pepper futures trading in the • local market to be introduced in all producing countries for better price discovery mechanism.The pepper consumption in US • & Europe is almost static and the growth in Asian, WANA region is commendable. Hence expand-ing market base for pepper in these region and concentrating market niches and differenced products are to be focused for sustaining the developments in the pepper industry.To regulate supply and to avoid • distress sales during the peak harvesting season, stocking pepper at rural warehouses and arrangement for availing loan against warehouse receipt are being considered by the major pepper producing countries.Currently the pepper prices • are very attractive and hence it is recommended to mobilize “Pepper Development Fund” by way of contribution from pepper farmers for addressing future

issues as well as undertaking value addition and R&D related activities.Market study to estimate realistic • growth rate in pepper consump-tion and demand projection is required for estimating optimum size of land to be brought under cultivation, so as to ensure the demands and supply are perfectly matched. It is important for pepper in-• dustry to support research and development activities in usage of pepper especially in nutrition-al and medicinal sectors so that fresh demand could be created. For this it would be necessary to conduct clinical trials for validation is purposed so that the need to use pepper could be established.Since market sentiments play an • important role in the price move-ments, the IPC should regularly publish realistic Price & Market information to pepper farmers and traders besides disseminating prices to farmers through SMS.Celebrating “Pepper Day” • through cooking demonstration/ contest, circulating pepper based food recipes & medicinal values in the pepper producing countries started 2013 should be continued for promoting domestic con-sumption of pepper for long term gain.

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Tariff and Non-Tariff Barriers in Cross- Border Trade in Spices

Geemon KorahChairman, AISEF

The global trade of, and usage of spices has shown impressive growth over the past decade and has in-creased from 910 million to 4,375 million USD, spread right across the full spectrum of the food industry. Changing demographics and chang-ing consumer tastes, combined with reported health benefits have caused an increase in the demand for “spicier” food. According to a report from Technomic, a food and bever-age consulting firm, more than half of consumers (54%) said that hot or spicy foods are appealing, compared to 48% in 2011 and 46% in 2009. Younger diners aged 18 to 34 were most likely to crave spicy menu items, but polls indicate that spicier foods are hotter across nearly all age demographics.

Tariff Barriers Under the initiative of General-ized System of Preferences (GSP) Scheme, tariff exceptions have been made for developing countries, thereby giving duty free access to major markets.

In European countries, there are no import duties on most raw spices like pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, cori-ander seeds, cumin seeds, ginger, tur-meric, etc. However major products that attract duties are vanilla (2.1%), cloves (2.8%) and a mixture of spices (2.3%). Under harmonized Tariff Schedule of United States (2014) Paprika, Thyme, Ginger etc attracts a general Tariff.

In Russia, the GSP Tariffs are ap-plicable for Green Chilies which attract a tariff duty of about 11.25%. Thailand imposes a very high import duty on onion, green chilli, ginger, turmeric powder and sesame whereas Malaysia imposes no Tariff duty on the above items. On an average, tariff on agricultural products are much higher than those on industrial prod-ucts, although there is considerable diversity from country to country. Even when tariffs have been reduced, the way they are structured continues to pose problems in both agriculture and industry.

Trade agreement between countries, sometimes causes products from India to be expensive in a particular market. E.g. Indian garlic oil exported and sold into Indonesia, is 5% more expensive than garlic oil from China due to bilateral trade agreements be-tween Indonesia and China. There are similar agreements between Korea and Singapore, and other countries.

There have also been in the past, local manufacturer led movements to protect interests, and thereby make Indian products more expensive in a particular market. E.g. in the year 2001, paprika oleoresin manufacturer, A US priducer of Oleoresin paprika had raised an anti-dumping petition alleging that imports of oleoresin paprika from India are being, or are likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value and that such imports are materially injuring and threaten to injure the industry in the United States.

These are but a few examples of tariff barriers, a reduction in the differences in tariffs will bring more choices to consumers in a wider price range leading to better utilization of re-sources with respect to its value chain partners thus benefitting both devel-oped and developing countries. A no tariff situation ends up in uniform

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reduction of trade cost, better alloca-tion of resource and a huge boost in world economy.

Non – Tariff BarriersThe spice industry faces the chal-lenge of meeting the standards of all the countries of the world it caters to: often standards and control measures are conflicting and contradictory, and not based on the nutritional sciences. Such standards conflict with their practical implementation and the sustainability of spice trade.Frequent revisions to these standards are made, without consultation with the farmer or the processor, on the other side of the world. The important question here is, whether the export-ers can meet these stringent require-ments. It, otherwise takes the form of non-tariff trade barriers.Some of the work that organizations such as the All India Spices Export-ers Forum (AISEF), the World Spice

Organization (WSO) are doing, wrt this are:

Work with EU & other countries • to accept certificates of analysis issued in India, by The Ministry of Commerce/Govt of India.Facilitate the ban on Ethion and • other potentially harmful Or-ganophosphate and Organochlo-ride pesticides immediately and in a systematic manner. Stricter control over pesticide registra-tion, manufacture, distribution and sale in India with the Govt of India having a say in approval of these chemicals for use in Spices and creating the Package of Practices.Lobbying with international • trade and government bodies to remove trade barriers – in the form of unfair regulations (e.g. the MRLs for Aflatoxin in spices eg. Nutmeg in EU for material

imported from India are much lower than from other parts of the world ), The Aflatoxin numbers are also more stringent compared to malt used in beer production, spices being con-sumed in far lesser quantities compared to beer.Develop/Demand better com-• mand over food regulations in importing countries. Regulations have to be developed keeping in mind the agricultural scenario in India. Initiate joint working plans with the regulatory bodies, to achieve the same.

References: 1. Statistics from Spices Board Website 2. Why Spicy Is the Most Profitable New Trend in Food, by Brad Turtle 3. agriexchange.apeda.gov.in4. www.usitc.gov5. mi.agri.net.in 6. www.gpo.gov

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Upgradation of Post Harvest Technology of Spices at Farm Level

Dr. M. A. Vaddoria, Prof. I. J. Golani and Prof. Y. A. KavathiyaVegetable Research Station, Junagadh Agricultural University

A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. In India a wide variety of spices are grown and many of them are native to the subcontinent and also known as "Home of Spices". Out of 109 spices crops, twenty crops have been identified as seed spices out of which cumin, fennel, coriander and fenugreek are major seeds. Both Gujarat and Rajasthan accounts for about 80 percent of area and produc-tion in India.

The seed spices are well distributed over different agro-climatic regions in India. But the major belt spread from semi arid covering larger area in Gujarat and Rajasthan. The share of Gujarat in area and production is 81 and 93 per cent in fennel and 67 and 74 per cent of cumin, respective-ly. Similarly in minor seed spices, the share of Gujarat in area and production is 51.7 and 67.5 per cent in dill and 15.6 and 29.2 per cent of Ajwain, respectively. The contribu-tion to fenugreek production is 16.6 per cent. The productivity of all seed spices crops in Gujarat is highest in the country.

Post harvest losses in spices:Presently, marketing system (includ-ing collection, handling, storage, transport, processing, wholesaling, retailing, exports and associated infrastructure and support services) is fragmented and is uncoordinated, with inadequate infrastructure and supply chains involving high wastage and losses. As a result, the producer gets about only 30-40 percent of final price, as compared to around 60 per-cent in advanced countries. Most of the farmers in the country are small and marginal farmers, often lacking the ability to produce enough market-able surplus for larger and remunera-tive markets. As a result, farm gate sales are high in the country (about 45 percent) and this is due to lack of information on market prices and on required quality parameters. If farmers are to get better prices, level of farm gate sales has to be brought down by giving the farmer, access to distant and bigger markets.

Measures for minimizing post har-vest losses in spices;

Minimization of post-harvest • losses occurring in spice crops by introducing improved, cost effec-tive technologies.

Minimize the deterioration in • quality occurring in spice crops due to adoption of improper post harvest handling, storage and processing techniques.Minimize the nutritional losses • occurring in spice crops due to use of improper postharvest tech-niques and thereby increase the nutritional status of the country. Improve farm level storage and • preservation facilities to enable the farmers to sell their com-modities during off seasons at attractive prices and thereby increase their incomes.Introduce improved post harvest • techniques that utilize minimum labour in order to reduce produc-tion costs of agricultural com-modities. Develop and transfer viable agro-• based industries at rural level in order to increase income and employment opportunities of the rural farming sector and thereby improve their standard of living.Popularize the use of foods • prepared from spice crops among consumers in order to create a higher market demand for the local grain production.

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The Basics Of Postharvest Technol-ogy There are many interacting steps involved in any post harvest system. Produce is often handled by many different people, transported and stored repeatedly between harvest and consumption. While particular practices and the sequence of opera-tions will vary for each crop, there is a general series of steps in post harvest handling systems that are often followed.

Harvesting, cleaning, grading • and preparation for marketPacking house operations• Packing and packaging materials • Decay and insect control• Temperature and relative humid-• ity controlStorage of spices crops• Transportation of spices crops• Handling at destination •

Most often, post harvest losses are a symptom rather than the problem. Knowledge of their cause is, therfore, essential for deciding measures to prevent them. Such measures may have to be taken by the farmers, the private trader, a cooperative, the marketing board or other operator, handlers and transporters, wholesale and retail markets, etc.

For this, the focus of assistance is to be given on the small farmers-men and women-who produce much of the spices in our country and who often keep most of what they produce on the farm. Further, assistance should also be concentrated on improving

storage on small farms. However, losses at this level are often negligible as small farmers are both careful and imaginative in safeguarding the prod-ucts within their existing possibilities. Further more, attention should also be given to the total post harvest chain, using loss assessment as a tool for understanding when, where and why losses occur.

Development of the post harvest sec-tor commonly requires inputs such as pesticides, cement, galvanized sheeting, wire netting, adequate packaging for the safe handling and transportation of perishables, sprays, boxes, and simple machines. Practical technical interventions are researched and promoted to prevent losses. For example, storage bins for spices must be cleaned out completely between seasons and disinfected before re-use; shade must be provided for holding products together with appropriate containers for their transportation and marketing. Improved technologies for drying of spices products should be introduced to reduce losses arising from seasonal gluts.

Day by day consumers are becom-ing quality conscious about food; not only about appearance but also about food free of contamination. The basic raw materials for any finished food product come from farms where all sorts of impurities are part of raw material. The types, shapes, varieties, characteristics of all these impurities are of so varied nature, that they cannot be separated by one process or by one machine.

Post Harvest Processes for Seeds spices:

1. Cleaning Processes:In case of seed spices, post harvest processes are termed as cleaning processes and covered under separa-tion technology of seeds. Before final product, the raw material is cleaned to remove impurities/ contaminants and this process is called pre-process operations also. It is also called in industries as , preparatory or primary processing.

2. Agro and Food Industries:The following industries need to clean seeds received from the fields to bring the quality to consumption standards specified by states. Other agro industries also use separation equipment.

Spice seeds cleaning (Cumin, • Black Pepper. Coriander etc)Spice industries (Spice powders, • spice oil etc)

3. Varieties of Impurities in Seed spices:Raw seeds contain following con-taminants to be separated.

Fines, dust, sand etc.• Lights such as sticks, stem, • leaves, hulls, etc.Heavies such as stones, mud • balls, metal pieces, etc.Immature / shriveled / damaged • seeds etc.Weed seeds.•

4. Theory of Separation Pro-cesses:In order to produce desired quality of product, various physical properties of seeds, impurities and contaminants

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are used in evolving the design of separation equipment. Major proper-ties applied are as under.

Dimensional - Width, thickness • and lengthShape of particles• Aerodynamic (Terminal velocity)• Surface Texture• Frictional coefficients• Specific gravity-density• Affinity for liquid.• Ferromagnetic• Electrical conductivity• Colour-Reflectivity•

Separation is based on differences in physical properties, between desirable seed and undesirable material and/or other crop seeds. If a difference exists between physical properties of seeds and contaminants and a machine is available which can differentiate between them in a consistent man-ner, they can be separated. A single machine can not separate seeds that differ in all these characteristics. In most instances, different machines are used to make separation based on each of these characteristics, and this ensures highest possible quality of product.

Separation Machineries:-

(A) Pre Cleaning Machineries

[1] Air wash scalper/aspirator:This is most simple pre cleaning machine in which-light grains, light and fine impurities are separated by air current passing through falling admixtures in a vertical column. It is a static machine having only fan as moving component. In this ma-

chine, sizing of grain is not possible. However, in some aspirators, grains are roughly separated on the basis of density into different chambers.

[2] Plain cleaner/scalper:These are open type machines with-out air systems. They separate large and small size impurities on the basis of sieve openings provided. They can not separate light impurities matching to product size. These cleaners can be flat deck vibrating type or cylindrical rotary drum type.

[3] Screen-air-separators / air cleaners:These types of machines are built in flat rectangular decks - either 2 deck or 3 deck -having larger and smaller perforations to control seed size. They are provided with pre aspira-tion and/or post aspiration system to remove light seeds, light & fine impu-rities. According to motions of decks, they are classified as: (l) Vibratory (2) Reciprocating (3) Gyratory. This type of pre cleaners provide more ef-fective pre cleaning as equipment are provided with adjustable controls for feed, air, amplitude, vibrations, speed, inclination etc.

(B) Fine cleaning/grading machin-eries:

[1] Plain graders:These are without aspiration systems. They are built (1) Flat horizontal decks type with reciprocating motion, (2) Cylindrical drum type with rotary motion, (3)Flat inclined decks type

with gyratory motion. In these ma-chines selection of sieve sizes are pre-cise. Suitable sieve cleaning device is important as close grading of seeds creates chocking of sieve openings.

[2] Fine cleaners cum graders:These are mostly horizontal inclined flat type multi deck machines provid-ed with pre aspirator and post aspira-tor to remove lights and fines, light seeds etc. which are not removed by pre cleaners. These machines are built with fine controls for feed, air, inclination of deck, speed, vibrations, amplitude in addition to having sieve cleaning devices to individual deck.

[3] Indent cylinders:These are rotary type machines provided with specially indented cyl-inders, to suit given seed to separate on the basis of length. Hence they are also called length graders. They are built in multi-cylinder machines also. Indent sizes decide grade of seed by length.

(C) Final cleaning machinery:

[1] Destoner:This machine consists of vibrating single flat deck with air system. If the cleaned product after fine cleaning and grading is left with product-size heavy impurities like stones, mud balls, metal pieces etc. Destoners are used to separate these heavy contaminants. Vacuum type Deston-ers with aspiration system are better equipped for dust free plant operation compared to pressure type destoner

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of open design. These machines are provided with fine controls on air, feed, inclination of deck, thrust to the deck & speed.

[2] Gravity separator:This machine consists of a vibrating flat deck in triangu-lar or rectangular construction and air system. Whereas destoner provides facility of two separations i.e. heavy contaminants from seeds, the gravity separator is more elaborate machine providing multi separations (3 to 5) of seeds on the basis of density. This machine is widely used to remove light / shriveled / wrinkled seeds and produce bold & heavy variety of seeds and grains. The product obtained is more than 99% pure.

This machine is also built in vacuum type with aspira-tion system as well as pressure type in open construc-tion. It is provided with many controls which require a skilled operator to adjust for optimum performance of the machine. These adjustments are air, feed, speed, long side inclination and cross side inclination of deck, thrust to the deck, torque action to the deck and inline motion of the deck. It is an important machine for spice seed processors and grain cleaners who desires to pro-duce highest quality cleaned product.

[3] Colour Sorters:-This is latest tool of cleaning technology. After pre-paring final products for food, such as rice, dals, spices seeds etc, it does contain some parts of unde-sired colours. The colour sorter by employing optical and sensor technology, removes selected undesired coloured products and ensures final products of one similar colour only. There are mainly two types of colour sorters.

(i) Vertical flow type in chutes. (ii) Horizontal flow type on Belt.

(D) Special Separations machineries:

Some machines are also used for special functions/specific cleaning which are described as under:

Spiral Separator To separate round seeds & flat seeds.

Draper Belt To separate round seeds & flat seeds.

Table Separator/ Compartment Separator

To separate husks, un husked seeds and husked seeds.

Magnet drum/pulley To separate iron particles.Magnetic seed separator /Electrostatic seed separator

To separate identical weed seed from product.

Thus there are varieties of separation machineries avail-able for agro & food industries to achieve almost 99.99% purities in the seed spices.

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Competitiveness of the Sri Lankan Spices in the World Market

W.D.L. Gunaratne, Director General, Department of Export Agriculture, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, was famous for Spices from the ancient time and most probably Spices are the first commod-ity of trade between Ceylon and rest of the world. Cinnamon and Pepper were the most prominent and indigenous two spice crops to Sri Lanka, which was grown wild and com-modity was harvested when necessary. Subsequently, Cloves, Nutmeg, Cardamom, Vanilla, Ginger and Turmeric has been introduced and well established as mixed crops in home gar-dens resembling typical Agroforestrty systems as well as with Plantation crops such as Tea and Coconut.

Intrinsic quality of Sri Lankan spices is well known due to inherent aroma and flavor. Arabs, who dominated trade among the countries in Asia and Pacific engaged in Spice trade from Sri Lanka and subsequently in 1505 Portuguese invaded the country searching Spice, Gem and Ivory and completely took over the market monopoly. Then Dutch took it from Portuguese in 1636 and ruled the costal belt of Sri Lanka and paid especial interest on Spice trade and their main concern was Cinnamon.

During that period Cinnamon was grown wild in central hill country of Sri Lanka. The crop was harvested and peeled to produce cinnamon in commerce. Once they real-ized the harvest of Cinnamon from forest was insufficient to meet the demand and the troubles they faced to bring the product to the harbor, they started commercial cultiva-tion of Cinnamon by domestication of wild crop first in Colombo and suburbs and then expanded to the Southern coastal belt around Galle, where a main harbor of Dutch was established. First trade agreement of Sri Lankan and a foreign country was signed on 14th of February in 1766 between King Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe and Dutch Governor to assure the continuous supply of Cinnamon to Dutch and the protection to the Kingdom of central part of the country.

Cinnamon - Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume( Syn C. verum J. Presal )Cinnamon in Sri Lanka is a hardy crop even adapted to poor soil conditions with low organic matter and low pH but need abundant sunlight. Sri Lanka is the major sup-plier of true Cinnamon to the world by exporting about 14,000mt annually, in the form of Quills, coming from about 30,000ha of cultivated land. Bark of the Cinnamon, spice in commerce, can be processed throughout the year except during the flowering season or new flush of leaves

The grading of Cinnamon is done according to the diam-eter of the quill and extent of dark patches on the bark “Foxing”. Outer appearance of Sri Lankan Cinnamon

Quills is smooth and golden brown in colour. The most superior grade “Alba” should not exceed 6mm in diam-

eter, percentage of foxing should be lower than 10.

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appearing in June to July. Madagascar and Seychelles are the two other major producers but Sri Lankan share exceed 85% of the world trade of true cinnamon.

More than the quantity, Sri Lankan true Cinnamon is re-nowned from Madagascar or Seychelles origins hence Sri Lankan cinnamon is smooth, uniform in size and appear-ance and fine in taste. Processing of Cinnamon is unique to Sri Lanka. Selectively harvested sticks in early morning are taken to the peeling shed before sun rise. Skin of the sticks is scraped with the special U shaped knife called “Kokeththa” and then rubs the bark with a brass rod to make it loosen from the wood. Then the bark is removed as it is without breaking it. Undamaged bark is removed

as it is, rolled to make a pipe after withering for few hours under shade or mild sun, connect them together, filled with the pieces of same cinnamon bark and rolled to make the typical Ceylon Cinnamon Quills. Those quills are dried under shade, rolled several times to bring to typical shape of the quill and once dried enough to reduce moisture level 14-15%, carefully stored to avoid any contamination or re-absorption of moisture. The grading of Cinnamon is done according to the diameter of the quill and

extent of dark patches on the bark “Foxing”. Outer appearance of Sri Lankan Cinnamon Quills is smooth and golden brown in colour. The most superior grade “Alba” should not ex-ceed 6mm in diameter, percentage of foxing should be lower than 10. The other grades, Continental ( C) follow by Mexican ( M) and Hamburg ( H) grades. The thickest grade is the H3 having <38mm in diameter and up to 65% foxing.

Steps of Cinnamon peelingTypical aroma, flavor and the appearance of Sri Lankan (Ceylon) cinnamon is considered to be the outcome of a combination of Climate, Soil and Genetic resource com-bined with the crop management coupled with the effort of the skilled peelers. Bark oil content of Cinnamon vary from 1.5 to 5.0%. Cinnamaldehyde, the major chemical constituent in bark oil vary from 50- 78%. Detailed stud-ies for over two decades have proved that the flavor of Sri Lankan cinnamon is not determined by Cinnamaldehyde content but the combination of other several chemical components found as traces (Wijesinghe et al., 2003). This needs further investigation.

Cassia, the cheaper substitute for true Cinnamon is a product from C. burmannii, C. aromaticum and C. cassia grown in south East Asia. Appearance of Cassia is dark brown and course in texture. Cassia quill is a single thick bark rolled inwards but Sri Lankan Cinnamon quill consist with one thin bark layer coating several layers of other thin bark pieces. At the same time, Cassia is stronger and hotter while Sri Lankan Cinnamon is sweet-pungent. The most important character of Sri Lankan cinnamon over Cinnamon Bail

Cut Cinnamon (15-20cm)

Sri Lankan Cinnamon Cassia Cinnamon

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the Cassia cinnamon is presence of negligible quantities of harmful chemicals such as Coumarin, which is carci-nogenic. Recent studies in USA and Europe has found Cassia cinnamon contains over 5.0% Coumarin while Sri Lankan Cinnamon contain less than 0.004%. Federal In-stitute of Risk assessment in Germany (BfR) has proposed TDI of Coumarin as 0.1mg/kg of body weight (esa, 2007). Pepper (Piper nigrum L.) Pepper is the second most important spice crop cultivated in Sri Lanka. Although it is documented that the West-ern Ghats of India as the origin of Pepper, availability of several wild species and P. nigrum inside thick rain forests such as “Singharaja” and “Nuckels”, proposed Sri Lanka also as one of the destinations of origin of Pepper. Genetic diversity of Sri Lankan pepper is so wide and plants can be visibly grouped ac-cording to the shapes of the leaves, internodal length, branching habit, Spike length, berry size, filling of the spikes etc. Most prominent feature of the local pepper accessions is the high pungency and aroma. Sri Lankan local pepper cultivars are well known for higher content of oil and very high oleoresin content. As a result of that, the demand from value added pepper industry for Sri Lankan pepper is higher.

For instant, most of the local pepper accessions have over 2.6% oil and GK-49 and TG-7 contain 3.44 and 2.90%, respectively. Panniyur-1 and Kuching reported to contain 2.60 and 2.71%, respectively. Most prominent character of the Sri Lankan pepper is high Oleoresin and Piperine content. For instants, Panniyur-1 and Kuching reported to contain 7.6% oleoresin and 3.5 – 3.7 Piperine. Most of the local pepper cultivars contain over 14.0% Oleoresin and KW-31, MB-12, MN-1 and GK-49 contain over 18.0% Oleoresin. Piperine content of those also was reported to be over 8.8% and MB-12 contains 11.7% Piperine. (Ratnawathie et al, 1983, Liyanage, T, 2012). Oleoresin content of Sri Lankan bulk black pepper was 7.40 to 12.55%. However, the content of oleoresin varies with the maturity of the pepper berries and harvesting at 4-5 month maturity, oleoresin content seems to be as high as 23.0% for local bulk.

Sri Lankan pepper industry mostly confined to Black pep-per but there are enough opportunities to expand for White pepper and Green pepper. Local pepper berries have thin pericarp in comparison to bigger berries like Panniyur-1. It is easy to remove by soaking in water for two to three days. Since the berries are smaller, bulk density is higher than 550g/l and some reaches over 650g/l. Diverse agro-ecological conditions permit for year round supply of material for the industry and two peak harvests could be observed in January – February and June - July. Recent introduction of machineries on concessional prices for removal of berries (Threshers), blanchers for hot water treatment, dryers, decorticators for making white pepper and graders have contributed towards products with supe-

rior intrinsic quality couple with more hygienically accepted features.

Cloves (Eugenia carryophyllus)Clove tree has been to Sri Lanka from Indonesia during early days of Por-tuguese ruling. Cultivation of Cloves mostly confined to Wet and Interme-diate Agrological regions in central part of the country. Very few Clove plantations could be found but the crop

is mainly cultivated as a mixed high canopy tree in Kan-dyan Home gardens and a mix crop with tea plantations. Total extent under cloves in Sri Lanka does not exceed 7,600ha and the production highly varies with the weather conditions. Total annual production of cloves varies from 4,000 to 9,000mt and export volume varies from 3,700 to 6,650mt. Sri Lankan Cloves is cultivated without any ad-ditional input and total cost of production is involved with harvesting and processing; hence fully organic. Although no any specific chemical properties are recorded, “Cey-lon Hand Picked Cloves” is distinguished in trade. Those clove buds are comparatively large in size, fully devel-oped corn on top and colour is reddish dark brown.

Nut Meg (Miristica fragrance L.)The situation of Nutmeg in Sri Lanka is not much differ-ent from Cloves as both the crops are predominantly a home garden or mixed crop. Total extent under Nutmeg in Sri Lanka is around 1,000ha and the annual production is around 2,500mt and export volume varies from 1,700 to 2,200mt. As in the case of Cloves, no input for crop management and product is purely Organic by default.

Sri Lankan pepper industry mostly confined to Black pepper but there are enough opportunities to expand for White pepper and Green pepper. Local pepper berries have thin peri-carp in comparison to bigger berries

like Panniyur-1.

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Cardamom (Eletaria cardamomum Maton) Sri Lanka was one of the important Cardamom producer and exporter at the beginning of the 20th century but cur-rently the production is insignificant in comparison to the other producers like India and Gautemala Cardamom was a crop confined to the reserved forest of the hill crests of most of the tea lands in central hill country of Sri Lanka. With the in-troduction of Land Reform Act in 1972 management of the Planta-tion companies changed and with that the attention on Cardamom was not given adequate attention. More over that declaration of most of the rain forests in hilly ar-eas of the central part of Sri Lanka had strict conservations as well as World heritages and no activity was allowed within them. Both of those factors adversely affected on cardamom production in the country and recently observed Cardamom thrips problem further re-stricted the new expansions of cultivations. There is about 2,700ha of estimated extent under cardamom but total an-nual production in recent past is not exceeding 100mt and less than half of that is available for export.

Ginger (Zingebare offecinalis) Ginger was not considered as an economically important crop until recent past as it was cultivated mainly for the domestic use for Medicinal, Culinary and Confectionary purposes. However, demand for ginger in local as well as international markets increased during the last decade. Current extent under Ginger in Sri Lanka is about 2,300ha and the estimated annual production is around 14,500mt. Local demand is slightly more than that and demands for Sri Lankan Ginger and Ginger oil and oleoresin from the European market is also increasing. Especially local cultivars of Ginger grown in Sri Lanka are high in Oil and Oleoresin in comparison to Chinese and Rangoon types. Increase of annual local production Io 18,000mt by 2016 through expansion of Ginger in nontraditional areas in Dry zone of Sri Lanka is under operation.

Organic Spice ProductionAlmost all the spice crops grown in Sri Lanka are free from serious pests and disease incidences and whatever the problem could be brought under control through

adoption of proper crop management practices. For an example, Cinnamon wood boaring moth damage of cinnamon is the major pest but it can be controlled by proper soil conservation and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). No serious pest in Pepper is found in Sri Lanka.

Slow decline of pepper, caused by number of factors also could be brought under control by adoption of the recommended GAP. Hence, the export of organically certified volume of Spice is in increasing trend and several Government and Non-government agencies support for the programme.

Incentives by the Government.Several incentive programme for Spice crop sector development

is under operation through the Department of Export Agriculture(DEA). Research division of the DEA in-volves in technology development and the Development division actively engaged in technology transfer. Other than the training and demonstration, three crop devel-opment assistance programmes are operated by DEA. Certified quality planting materials are given free for New planting programme and after successful field establish-ment of the crop, financial reward, based on crop, is given 3-4 yr after field establishment. Aiming at the productiv-ity improvement of the existing lands, a programme is in operation to provide free planting materials for filling vacancies and financial assistance for adoption of the recommended Gaps for a period of three years. Quality improvement programme under operation provide pro-cessing equipment and support for establishment of group processing centers targeting a good quality end product to meet the recommended phyto-sanitary measures. Market-ing facilities are provided through the Export Develop-ment Board of Sri Lanka.

With the introduction of Land Reform Act in 1972 management of the Plantation compa-nies changed and with that the attention on

Cardamom was not given adequate attention. More over that declaration of most of the

rain forests in hilly areas of the central part of Sri Lanka as strict conservations as well as World heritages, no activity was allowed

within them.

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Processing and Value Addition in Spices and MachineryM Anandaraj, R Dinesh, V Srinivasan, T John Zachariah

Indian Institute of Spices Research

Value addition in spices is yet another area of activity in which India is moving forward. The consistent effort by various agencies during the

last one decade has improved the share of the value added products in the export basket to more than 53%. India can now boast as the monopoly supplier of spice oils and oleo-resins the world over. During the year 2009-2010, India exported 6750 tonnes of spice oils and oleoresins worth Rs. 7087.5 million. In the case of curry powders, spice powders, spice mixtures and spices in consumer packs, India is in a formidable position.

Spices thus open ample opportunity for entrepreneurship. To achieve this one of the key requirements is to diversify the products from spices. Secondary agriculture is the watch word for development for both farmers and primary processors of spices. Even though India produces a good quantity of black pepper, ginger, turmeric and cardamom more than 85% of it is consumed within the country itself. Contrary to this other spice producing countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Brazil and Srilanka etc. export over 80% of their produce. Value addition throws open ample opportunity in export. The present scenario in processing and value addition of important spices is discussed.

Black pepper

HarvestingBlack pepper takes about 7-8 months after flowering to reach full maturity. In India, the crop is harvested during December –January in plains and January-April in the high ranges of Western Ghats. It is important to harvest pepper at the proper stage of maturity in order to achieve a dried product of good colour and appearance. Recent advances in product diversification have necessitated har-vesting of the berries at different stages of maturity which has to be regulated depending on the various end uses

Optimum maturity at harvest for different pepper products

Product Stage maturity at harvestCanned Pepper 4-5monthsOleoresin and essential oil 15-20 days before maturityDehydrated green pepper 10-15 days before maturityPepper powder Fully mature with maxi-

mum starchBlack Pepper Fully mature and 1-2

berries start turning from yellow to red in each spike

White Pepper Fully ripe

Even though India produces a good quantity of black pepper, ginger, turmeric and cardamom more than 85% of it is consumed within the country itself. Contrary to this other spice producing countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Brazil and Srilanka etc. export over 80% of their produce. Value addition throws open ample opportunity in export. The pres-

ent scenario in processing and value addition of important spices is discussed.

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Post harvest processingThe primary processing in black pepper involves thresh-ing, blanching, drying (sun drying or mechanical drying), grading and packing.

ThreshingThe berries are separated from the spike usually by trampling with human legs. Mechanical threshers with ca-pacities varying from 200 kg/h to 1200 kg//h are available which can thresh quickly and provide cleaner products.

BlanchingApart from the major quality attributes such as pungency and aroma, the appearance with respect to its colour (brown/ black) is of importance for use of black pepper as a spice in the whole or ground form. Since phenols are known to contribute to browning / blackening of finished pepper corns, the nature and distribution of phenolic compounds are very important. Blackening of fresh green pepper is due to enzymatic oxidation of (3, 4-dihydroxy phenyl) ethanol glycoside by an o-diphenol oxidase (PPO) present in the fresh fruit. It was proved that conversion of green pepper to black pepper by the drying process was accompanied by a 75% decrease in total phenolic content and a complete loss of o-diphenol oxidase oxidizable phe-nolic fraction which suggest a major role for enzymatic phenolic oxidation during pepper blackening. Dipping harvested green pepper for a minute in boiling water enhances this action and provides a shining black colour to the produce.

DryingPepper has moisture content of 60 to 70% at harvest, which should be brought to safer levels of 10-11% by adequate drying. The dry recovery varies from 29 to 43% depending on the variety. Sun drying is the conventional method followed for drying of black pepper. Driers de-veloped by various agencies such as solar and mechanical dryers are highly efficient for drying pepper

Cleaning and gradingThe threshed and dried pepper has extraneous matter like spent spikes, pinheads, stones, soil particles etc. mixed with it. Cleaning and grading are basic operations that enhance the value of the produce and help to get higher returns. On a small scale, winnowing and hand picking remove most of these impurities.

Using sieves, cleaned pepper, is sifted into different grades based on size. These standards are being imple-

mented rigorously under the Compulsory Agmark Grading Scheme, though Agmark grading is not essential for export of spices from India. The export specifications are determined by the importing countries. The Agmark grades are as follows:

Malabar Garbled (MG Grades 1 and 2) Black Pepper• Malabar Ungarbled (MUG Grades 1 and 2) Black • PepperTellicherry Garbled Black Pepper Special Extra Bold • (TGSEB)Tellicherry Garbled Extra Bold (TGEB)• Tellicherry Garbled (TG)• Pin heads (PH Grade Grade special and Grade1)• Garbled light Pepper (GL Special, GL Grades 1 • and 2)Ungarbled Light Pepper (UGL Special, UGL • Grades 1and 2)Black Pepper (Non-specified)•

Packing and storageBlack pepper is hygroscopic in nature and absorption of moisture from air, notably during rainy season with high humidity may result in mould and insect infestation. Be-fore storage it is to be dried to around 10% moisture. The dried whole pepper is packed and stored in double burlap bags with polythene liners of 0.076 mm or more in thick-ness or in laminated HP bags in order to prevent further mould development and to inhibit growth of microorgan-isms and insects.

Value added products from black pepperA variety of products can be made from pepper classified under 1) Green pepper based products 2) Black pepper and white pepper based products 3) Pepper by- products.

Green pepper based productsMajor green pepper based products are canned green pep-per, green pepper in brine, bulk-packaged green pepper in brine, cured green pepper, frozen green pepper, freeze dried green pepper, dehydrated green pepper, green pepper oil, green pepper pickle, mixed green pepper pickle, green pepper sauce and green pepper-flavoured products.

Black pepper based productsBlack pepper based products include whole black pepper, sterilized black pepper, ground black pepper, cryoground black pepper powder, pepper oil and oleoresin.

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White pepper based productsWhite pepper is the white inner corn obtained after re-moving the outer skin or pericarp of pepper berries. The traditional method of preparation of white pepper is by retting. If running water is not available, the alternative is to use fermentation tanks wherein the water is changed ev-ery day for 7-10 days. Retting converts only ripe and fully mature berries to white pepper. Conversion of harvested berries to white pepper gives a recovery of 22 to 25%. Various agencies have standardized techniques to convert green pepper to white pepper using microbial consortium.

White pepper is preferred over black pepper in light col-ored preparations such as sauces, cream soups etc. where dark colored particles are undesirable. It imparts modified natural flavour to food stuff.

Encapsulated spice powderIn the production of spray dried spices, the essential oils and or oleoresins are dispersed in the edible gum solu-tion, generally gum acacia or gelatin, spray dried and then blended with dry base such as salt or dextrose. As water evaporates from the spray dried particles, the gum forms a protective film around each particle of extractive. The protective capsule prevents the spice extractive from evaporating and from being exposed to oxygen.

Other productsPepper-flavoured products like pepper mayonnaise, pep-per cookies and pepper tofu are some of the products prepared from white or black pepper. Pepper extract is a valuable adjunct in the flavouring of sausages, canned meat, soups, table sauces and certain beverages and liquor. Black pepper preservative is a valued as an essential preservative for meats and other perishable foods. It is therefore largely used by meat packers and in canning, pickling, baking, confectionery and in the preparation of beverages. Pepper oil is used in perfumery and also for manufacturing soaps. Many products, in which pepper is a major ingredient, have been developed such as lemon pep-per, garlic pepper, sauces and marinades that have pepper as the main component. Curry powders and spice blends for various culinary uses have pepper has one of the major ingredients.

Cardamom

HarvestingCardamom fruits mature in about 120 days after flow-ering. Due to prolonged flowering period, cardamom

capsules ripen successively at 10- 15 days intervals over an extended period of 8 months (from August to March). Generally harvesting is carried out at an interval of 15- 30 days and completed in 8-9 rounds by hand picking.

Retention of green colourImmature capsules retain greater intensity of green colour. The harvested capsules carry soil or dirt on their surface and hence they are washed thoroughly in water. The capsules are then treated with 2 per cent sodium carbon-ate solution for 10 minutes which enables to retain green colour and prevent mould growth.

Curing and dryingCuring may be defined as the process in which the mois-ture content of freshly harvested cardamom capsules is reduced from 70-80% to 11- 12% at an optimum tem-perature of 45-55oC so as to retain its green colour and volatile oil to a maximum extent.

PackingThe cured capsules are graded using sieves of 8, 7.5,7 and 6 mm. The graded cardamom is stored over a period of time, in double lined polythene bags. Storage rooms should be free from insect damage. Studies have shown that cardamom dried and maintained at or below 10% moisture retains original parrot green colour and avoids mould growth. It is advisable to make use of dried carda-mom capsules preferably within 12 months of harvesting.

Value added products from cardamom

Bleached cardamomFreshly harvested or dry capsules of cardamom can be used as starting material for bleaching. Sulphur bleaching of dry cardamom capsules is the widely practiced method. Here the capsules are soaked in 2% bleaching powder solution (20 g/l of water) for one hour and spread on wooden trays which are arranged inside airtight chambers. Sulphur-di-oxide is produced by burning sulphur (15 g/kg of capsules) and made to pass over the trays. The process of soaking and drying is to be carried out for 3-4 times depending up on the intensity of white colour required. The bleached cardamom is creamy white or golden yellow in colour

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Decorticated seeds and seed powderDecorticated cardamom seeds generally fetch a lower price than whole cardamom due to loss of volatile oil dur-ing storage and transportation. However, a large portion of the cardamom is imported into Western countries to meet industrial and institutional requirements for bulk supply of powdered cardamom.

Cardamom volatile oilFor volatile oil, steam distillation is the preferred and the yield of the volatile oil varies from 3.4-8.6% in seeds and 5.2-11.3% in dried capsules. However, the flavour quality of the oil is attributed by the relative concentrations of alpha terpinyl acetate to that of 1, 8-ciniole. Better aroma quality is contributed by low 1, 8-ciniole and high alpha terpinyl acetate. Cardamom oleoresinThe total extracts or oleoresins reflect the flavour profile more closely than the volatile oil. The oleoresins also extract non-aromatic fats, waxes, resinoids, colour and other components soluble in the chosen extracting solvent. Oleoresins freed from fat components and prepared as concretes are useful in perfume industries. Other products

Other products include encapsulated cardamom which is free flowing and having uniform flavor, cardamom tea, cardamom coffee, cardamom soft drink mix.

Ginger

HarvestingIn India normally harvesting of ginger is done from January to April, varying with the locations. The crop is ready for harvest in about 8 months after planting when the leaves turn yellow and start drying up gradually. The clumps are lifted carefully with spade or digging fork and the rhizomes are separated from the dried up leaves, roots and adhering soil. Harvesting is to be done from the 6th month onwards when used as green ginger.The quality of ginger is affected by the stage of the harvest. Harvesting of ginger needs to be scheduled for each end product.

Stage of harvest of ginger for various end uses

End use Stage of harvest(months after planting)

Vegetable purpose and preparation of ginger pre-serve, candy, soft drinks, pickles and alcoholic beverages

4 - 5

Dried ginger and prepara-tion of ginger oil, oleo-resin, dehydrated and bleached ginger

8-10

Green ginger, oleoresin and volatile oilHigh dry ginger & starch and low crude fibreDry ginger

788 - 9

Salted ginger High essential oilHigh oleoresinHigh essential oil & oleo-resin

4 – 577½ - 88

High oleoresin and oil content

9

High crude fibre & Low protein and fat Low crude fibreLess fibre & mild pun-gency

6½ - 77< 7

PeelingPeeling hastens the process of drying and maintains the epidermal cells of the rhizomes, which contain essential oil responsible for aroma of ginger. Indigenously, peel-ing is performed by partially scraping the peel of ginger rhizomes with sharpened bamboo splinters. The scrapped or partially peeled rhizomes are put for drying on clean drying yard.

DryingTraditionally ginger is sun dried in a single layer in open yard. The cleaned and partially peeled ginger with moisture content of about 80% is spread thinly under sun

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and the moisture content is brought down to 10 to 12% or even less for safe storage. It takes about 10 -15 days for complete drying. The dried ginger presents a brown, irregular wrinkled surface and when broken shows a dark brownish colour. The dry ginger so obtained is known as rough or unbleached ginger. The yield of dry ginger is 19-25% of fresh ginger depending on the variety and the location where it is grown.

Bleaching of ginger The peeled ginger rhizomes are washed and kept steeped in plain water for 2 to 3 hours. Thereafter, they are taken out and steeped in about 1.5 to 2.0% lime (CaO) solution for about 6 hours. They are then drained and sun dried on mats, barbecues, or on a clean cement floor. This liming or bleaching of ginger not only improves its colour, but also helps to preserve it bet-ter. Besides, liming is reported to retard insect infestation.

Value added products from ginger

Ginger powderDried ginger is powdered to a fine mesh-60 (250 microns) to be used in various end products.

Salted gingerFresh ginger (with relatively low fibre) harvested at 170 -180 days after planting can be used for preparing salted ginger. Tender rhizomes with portion of the pseudo stem is washed thoroughly and soaked in 30% salt solution containing 1% citric acid. After 14 days it is ready for use and can be stored under refrigeration.

CrudefibreIn fully matured ginger crude fibre varies from 3-8%. It is estimated by acid and alkali digestion of ginger powder and what ever remains is considered as fibre.

Ginger oilDry ginger on distillation yields 1.5 to 2.5% volatile oil. The main constituent in the oil is zingiberene and contrib-utes to the aroma of the oil.

Ginger oleoresinDry ginger powder on treating with organic solvents like acetone, alcohol, ethyl acetate etc. yield a viscous mass that attribute the total taste and smell of the spice. The major non- volatile principal in oleoresin is gingerol. The oleoresin content varies from 4 -10 %.

Ginger-based beveragesAmong spices, ginger has the unique distinction of being used in beverages. Built around the central flavor of gin-ger and supported by other flavors from fruits, other spice and herbs, there are two distinct classes of beverages, ginger beer and ginger ale. The principal difference be-tween these two beverages lies in the rather higher gravity and higher extractives. Ginger beer has a complex flavor and cloudy appearance, whereas ginger ale is valued for its sparklingly clear appearance, distinct lemony-aromatic note on the basis ginger aroma, high pungency and high carbonation. These two classes of beverages are made in a number of variations to cater to individual market requirements and end uses.

OthersSweet and salty products can be prepared from fresh gin-ger like ginger candy, ginger paste, salted ginger, salted ginger, crystallized ginger.

Turmeric

HarvestingThe turmeric crop is ready for harvesting in about 7 to 9 months after sowing depending upon the variety. In India, sowing takes place between June and July and harvesting is done from February to April. Before harvest, the dry leaves and stem are cut close to the ground. The rhizome bunches are carefully lifted and adhering soil was re-moved by soaking in water and further cleaned of roots and scales before they are collected in the curing yard

Post- harvest processing The traditional method of turmeric processing consists of the following steps washing, boiling/curing, drying, polishing, colouring, packaging and marketing.

Boiling/Blanching/CuringTraditionally boiling is done in metal or mud pots with (three fourth capacity) water for 1 hr to 1.5 hrs. Top of the pots are covered with a lid or dry leaves. Boiling process is continued till foams and white foams start coming out. These come out with a special quality of flavour. Rhi-zomes are tested by pressing with fingers depending on the quantity.

The rhizomes as wholes or cut longitudinally into halves and the fingers are generally cured separately, as cooking time varies with difference in thickness.

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Cooking helps in producing a product of fairly uniform color, due to diffusion. Boiling considerably reduces the drying time both in sun drying and mechanical drying, while the total color and the volatile oil remained practi-cally the same.

DryingDrying is slow, taking 10-15 days for completion, when properly dried, the rhizomes become hard, almost horny, brittle and of uniform yellow colour. The moisture con-tent of the dried rhizomes is one of the lowest for spices. Completely dried turmeric holds 6-8 % moisture content. PolishingHand polishing is by rubbing dried rhizomes against a hard surface. By this process colour of turmeric becomes bright or shining. The product is known in trade as ‘pol-ished turmeric’.

Mechanical polishing helps to remove scales, rootlets and some of the epidermal layer through the sieve mesh and surrounding the polishing drums and the sieved dust is generally used as manure.

ColouringBetter look for exported turmeric is imparted by a dry or wet colouring process. In the dry process, turmeric pow-der is added to the polishing drum in the last 10 min. In the wet colouring process, turmeric powder is suspended in water and is mixed inside by sprinkling inside the pol-ishing basket. After colouring is complete, these are dried for one week.

Value added products from turmeric

India is the global leader in value-added products of turmeric and exports. Value added products from turmeric include curcuminoids, dehydrated turmeric powder, oils, and oleoresin. Turmeric, like other spices is available as wholes, grinds and oleoresin. The institutional sector in West buys ground turmeric and oleoresins, while in the industrial sector, whole dry turmeric is preferred.

Ground turmericDried turmeric is powdered by disc type attrition mills to obtain 60-80 mesh powder for use in various end prod-ucts. The rhizomes contain 4-6% of volatile oil and there is a great chance of losing the oil when powdered. Since

curcuminoids, the color constituents of turmeric, dete-riorate on exposure to light and to a lesser extent, under heat and oxidative conditions, it is important that ground turmeric is packed in a UV protective packaging and ap-propriately stored. Powdered turmeric is packed in bulk, in a variety of containers, fibre board drums, multiwalled bags and tin containers. The color of turmeric was not affected in any of the packaging or storage conditions upto six months. Turmeric powder is a major ingredient in curry powders and pastes.

Turmeric oilDried rhizomes and leaves are used industrially to extract the volatile oil. Dried rhizomes contain 5-6% and leaves contain about 1-1.5% oil. It is generally extracted by steam distillation. The peculiar turmeric aroma is imparted by ar-turmerone, the major aroma principle in the oil.

Turmeric OleoresinTurmeric oleoresin is the organic extract of turmeric and is added to food items as a spice and coloring agent. Tur-meric oleoresin is essentially used in institutional cooking in meat and fish products and certain products such as mustard, pickles and relish formulas, butter and cheese. This is obtained by the solvent extraction of the ground spice with organic solvents like acetone, ethylene dichlo-ride and ethanol for 4-5 hours. It is orange red in colour. Oleoresin yield ranges from 7.9 to 10.4%. Curcumin, the principal coloring matter forms almost one third of a good quality oleoresin.

CurcuminCurcumin or curcuminoids concentrate, for use as a food color is included in the list of colors with a restricted use because it has been allotted a low ADI (Acceptable Daily Intake) of 0-1.0 mg/kg body weight/day. Curcumin gives a bright yellow color even at doses of 5-200 ppm. A variety of blends are available to suit the color of the product.

Nutmeg

Nutmeg and mace are two different parts of the same fruit of the nutmeg tree, Myristica fragrans.

HarvestingThe female nutmeg tree starts fruiting from the sixth year and the fruits are ready for harvest in about 9 months after flowering. The fruits are ripe and ready for harvesting

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when the pericarp splits open. The split fruits are either plucked from the tree with a hook bill or are collected soon after they drop onto the ground.

Post Harvest Processing

DryingNutmeg is dried in large tray driers using electrical or agricultural wastes as fuel. The unshelled nutmegs are dried in shade until the seeds inside rattle on shaking. Normally, nutmeg dries in about a week. The seed cover is removed by breaking the hard seed coat mechanically.

MaceMace is detached from the nut carefully soon after har-vest, washed, flattened by hand or between boards and then sun dried until they become brittle. Hot air ovens can be used for drying and the colour retention is much better than sun dried mace. Dried mace is graded and packed. The fixed oil content of mace ranges from 20% to 35%.

Mace is dried in single layer over a wire mesh in copra drier separating the plenum and drying in the chamber. The temperature of drying is maintained around 500C.

As a pretreatment if mace is blanched at 750C in hot wa-ter for 2 minutes, the leathery texture can be maintained and the drying process will be fast. Drying in this type of hot air drier will take about 4 h to complete the process. In addition, blanching provides glossiness and thus mace acquires more attractive and pleasing appearance.

Value added products from nutmeg

Nutmeg powderDried nutmeg is ground to fine powder to be used in vari-ous end products.

Nutmeg oilThe essential oil from nutmeg is steam distilled and the oil percentage varies from 5-15%. The essential oil is highly sensitive to light and temperature and yields a colourless, pale yellow or pale green oil with characteristic odour of nutmeg.

Nutmeg oleoresinNutmeg oleoresin is obtained by solvent extraction of spices. Oleoresins contain saturated volatile oil, fatty oil

and other extractives soluble in the particular solvent. Nutmeg extracted with benzene yields 31 to 37% of oleo-resins.

Nutmegs butter The fixed oil of nutmeg is known as nutmeg butter. Nut-meg butter contains 25 to 40% fixed oil. The fixed oil is freely soluble in ether or chloroform and is composed of trimyristin, unsaponifiable constituents (9.8%), and oleic acid (3.5%), resinous materials (2.3%), linolenic acid (0.6%) formic and acetate. Tri myristin is a triglyceride of myristic acid and is creamy to yellowish grey solid. Mace oleoresinWhen extracted with petroleum ether mace yields 27 to 32% oleoresin and contains 8.5 to 22% volatile oil.

Mace oilIt is obtained by steam distillation of dried aril and yields 4-17%. It is a clear red or amber dark red liquid with char-acteristic odour and flavour. Mace oil is more expensive than nutmeg oil.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) is obtained by drying the central part of the bark after the second or third year of planting.

HarvestingIt is harvested from the branches which have attained greenish brown colour indicative of maturity and when the bark peels of easily. The shoots are cut for bark extraction. Post harvest processingFollowing are the stages in the production of quills:

PeelingThe rough outer bark is first scraped off with a special knife. Then the scraped portion is polished with a brass rod to facilitate easy peeling. A longitudinal slit is made from one end to other and the bark is peeled off.

RollingThe barks are packed together and placed one above the other and pressed well. The bark slips are reduced to 20 cm length and are piled up in small enclosures made by

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sticks. Then they are covered with dry leaves or mat to preserve the moisture for the next day’s operation and also to enhance slight fermentation.

PipingRolled slips are taken to the piping yard for piping opera-tions. The outer skin is scraped off with a small curved knife. The scraped slips are sorted into different grades according to thickness. The graded slips are trimmed; ends are cut and pressed over pipes. Slips are rolled into pipes and soon after they are allowed to dry. During drying, smaller quills are inserted into the bigger ones, form-ing smooth and pale brown compound quills, which are known as pipes. The quills are arranged in parallel lines in the shade for drying, as direct exposure to the sun at this stage would result in warping. The dried quills, thus obtained, consist of a mixture of coarse and fine types and are yellowish brown in colour. The quills are bleached, if necessary, by sulphur treatment for about 8 hours.

The process of producing quills has several by-products, which are used in further processing:

Quillings:• These are broken pieces of quills used mainly for grinding but also for distillation of oil. The pieces vary considerably in size, being about 5 to 15 or 20 cm in length and about 10-25 mm in diameter.Feathering: • These are short shavings and small pieces of leftovers in the processing of the inner bark into quills. Collectively, featherings present a shade darker colour than the quills and a shade lighter than the chips.Chips:• These are small pieces of bark, grayish brown on the outer side and a lighter brown on the inside. They are deficient in both aroma and taste and are not to be compared to the quills for flavour.

Value added product from cinnamon

Cinnamon bark oilIt is essentially extracted by the steam distillation of cin-namon and the oil percentage varies from 0.5 to 2.5 %. The main constituent of this oil is cinnamaldehyde which constitutes to 65%. The oil is light yellow in color and when distilled and turns to red on storage. The bark oil is graded based on its cinnamic aldehyde content. The oil is widely used for flavouring confectionary, liquors, pharma-ceuticals, soaps and dental preparations.

Cinnamon oleoresinThe dry cinnamon bark powder on treating with solvents like acetone, alcohol, ethyl acetate yields a viscous mass that attribute to the total taste and aroma of cinnamon. The oleoresin content varies from 7-10%.

Cinnamon leaf oilIt is obtained by distilling the leaves through steam or water distillation. The leaves are allowed to dry for 3 – 4 days before distillation. Cinnamon leaf oil is yellow to brownish-yellow in colour and possesses a warm, spicy but rather harsh odour. The major constituent of leaf oil is eugenol (70 – 90%) while the cinnamaldehyde content is less than 5%. It is used as a raw material for synthesis of vanillin. The oil is used for flavouring confectionary and sweets and in perfumery.

Cinnamon powderThe quills and remnants of the bark can be powdered and used as cinnamon powder. For most baked products, cinnamon is used in the powdered form. The essential oil

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content of the powder is less compared to the bark due to losses during the process of grinding.

Cinnamon root bark oilCinnamon root bark oil is a colourless to pale yellowish-brown liquid with an odour similar to the stem bark oil but it is weaker, lacking in fragrance and is camphoraceous. The major component of this oil is camphor (about 60%) which crystallizes out on standing.

Promoting value-addition in spices through BPDsPost harvest management of spices has great scope con-sidering present International trade scenario. We expect a huge jump in the export of curry powders and other value added products in the coming decade. The total export in value added products may cross 600 million US dollars in the coming 10 years. The research programmes should orient for this demand by focusing more attention on better agro techniques in product diversification, varieties suitable for such products and following GAP. Consider-ing the huge potential of spices as source of eco friendly

nutraceuticals, agro techniques which release such com-pounds needs to be formulated. Presently, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) through the National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) is aiming to develop R&D systems to find new ways of conducting business by establishing a Busi-ness Planning & Development (BPD) unit to achieve the objectives of encouraging R&D in spice processing for product and process development, productivity enhance-ment and value addition for income generation of farmers and small entrepreneurs. This unit which has been set up at IISR aims to fulfil the demands of the agro industry and agripreneurs by spice processing business and technolo-gies incubation. It will act as a catalyst for attracting entrepreneurship development by developing integrated processing capacities, providing technical guidance and advice on quality maintenance and testing standards as well as creating conducive environment for its growth.

The BPD unit envisages fostering sustainable business development by providing services to the farmers, co operatives, start up entrepreneurs, existing small and mid-sized spice companies like access to the processing unit for market testing of their products, technology/prototype development, research and development, latest commu-nication facilities, advice on business plan, marketing, legal and financial assistance. The processing unit will be equipped with all state of the art facilities for primary processing as well as for secondary processing of spices and allied products.

It will also promote entrepreneurship for enhanced production of seed and planting material integrating programmes on large scale rapid multiplication of spices. Some of the machineries to be installed in this unit include Pre cleaner, vibratory grader with bucket elevator, aspira-tor, spiral separator, grader for dry pepper, Packaging machine, washer, dryer, grader for fresh pepper, pulper cum washer, Macro pulveriser, Micro pulveriser, roaster, blender, sealing machine, packaging machine etc. The BPD will promote technology based new enterprises, value added services, transfer of technology and eventu-ally greater creativity in the research system.

Organic Spices - Prospects & ChallengesGopinath R.DurairajMother India Farms

Drivers For The MarketThe demand for Spices in the Domestic Market has always been resis-tant of recession due to its dominant usage in food service outlets and at home consumption. The demand is also on the increase due to increasing demand of new flavors/ingredients, increasing popularity of ethnic cuisines. The increase in the awareness of health among consumers has a vital role to play in the shift in de-mand from conventional spices to Organic spices. Organic spice is one among the fastest growing items in the FMCG category.

Factors that will affect the demand for Organic Spices in India as well as the global markets are growth in income, health/environmental consciousness and relative prices with conventional products.

In some developing countries, local markets for certified organic agriculture are emerging, especially through spe-cialized shops in larger cities. These may be small and not assessed, but have the potential to grow very quickly. Lo-cal Organic markets tend to increase with income growth and heightened environmental consciousness.

The changes in taste and preference are difficult to analyse or predict, but are probably the driving force behind the present growth in the demand for organic commodities. In the recent past, the general concern over the increased risks of consumption of GMO’s (Genetically modified organisms) has helped in increased demand for organic commodities.

Premium for Organic ProductsOrganic Spices are difficult to grow as certain products are prone to pests and insect attacks. Also Organic Produces do not yield the same output as conventional produces since that is how nature intended it to be. The average increase in cost of production of organic spices compared to conventional spices is about 30% (including the offset-ting of loss in output). This number might increase if the

product is very sensitive to pests or if it is not native to the land where it is grown. Hence the average premium a consumer pays towards buying Organic Products over conventional products is about 30%.

Market ChallengesThe Organic Sector in India is still in its infancy and therefore faces a number of problems and constraints. These include the need to raise awareness and improve education related to Organic foods and the reduction in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The flow-ing points also needs to be implemented / addressed to increase to overcome challenges in the market

Improve the structure of the domestic market for • organic products and access to international organic foods market.Increase the number of organic farms and production • bases for a sustainable supply of organic products.Develop additional techniques for production and • processing of organic spices.Develop inspection and certification in accordance • with global standards.

The other main challenge is the rising cost of organic in-puts as the demand for organic spices increases. Although Organic Farmers rely on a closed system with minimal use of purchased items, this might not always be possible.

SupplyChain,TraceabilityandCertification.Any Organic Product has to be certified by a recognized certifying body. APEDA (Agricultural and Processed food products Export Development Authority) is responsible for accrediting certifying bodies working within India. The regulations for Organic farming/ production set by APEDA under NPOP standards largely cover the do’s and don’t s. The most important aspect of Organic farming is traceability. It is very important tool for the consumer to trace back to where the products originate from. Every transaction of Organic food trade should be complemented by an Organic Transaction certificate which is issued by APEDA. The Organic traceability certificate acts as key factor to avoid any fraudulent companies to sell inorganic goods as organic products. However, there is a need for stricter norms to ensure the consumer is benefitted with availability of only genuine organic Products in the mar-ket.

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From Whole to Ground Spices – Significance of Processing in Export

Surojit Basu, Product Manager, Buhler India

IntroductionIndia is known as the home of spices and boasts of a long history of trading with the ancient civilisations of Rome and China. Today, Indian spices are the most sought-after globally, given their exquisite aroma, texture and taste. In-dia has the largest domestic market for spices in the world. India produces and exports about 75 varieties of spices, is the world's largest producer and exporter of spices. The usage of spices and herbs by consumers is increasing re-cently because they are appreciated as completely natural, rather than artificial, additives.

Herbs and spices are not just valuable in adding flavour to foods. Their antioxidant activity also helps to preserve foods from oxidative deterioration, increasing their shelf- life.

Export ScenarioIndia primarily exports pepper, chilli, turmeric, ginger, cardamom, coriander, cumin, fennel, fenugreek, celery, nutmeg garlic, tamarind and vanilla. Processed spices such as spice oils and oleoresins, mint products, curry powder, spice powders, blends and seasonings are also exported.

During the 2012-13, a total of 699,170 tons of spices and spice products valued Rs.11,171.16 crore (US$2.04 Billion) has been exported from the country as against 575,270 tons valued Rs.9783.42 crore (US$2.04 Billion) in 2011-12, registering an increase of 22% in volume and 14% in rupee terms of value. The export of processed spices such as curry powder, mint products and spice oils and oleoresins accounted for 44.2 per cent of total exports. The US is the major importer followed by China, the

UAE, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Germany, Singa-pore and Sri Lanka.

Future export market in spices is optimistic as the con-sumption of convenience and ethnic foods is expected to increase because more and more people are eager to try the new and varied taste of foreign foods. Also, the im-migrant population is expected to grow further in most EU countries.

MajorinternationalqualityspecificationsToday the two major international standards are those set by the United States and those set by the European Union (EU). Standards relying on the same general parameters also exist in those countries responsible for growing herbs and spices, for example the Indian Spices Board and the Pepper Marketing Board. These standards are influenced by those set by the major importing coun-tries.

There are various types of test which make up the range of international standards:

Cleanliness.• This is a measure of the amount of for-eign and extraneous matterAsh level.• This is a measure of the level of impurities in a productAcid insoluble ash (AIA) (or sand content):• This is a classic determination of the cleanliness of the herb or spice.Volatile oil (V/O) determination• . This measure helps to identify whether the herb orspice has been adulterated

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Moisture content.• The amount of moisture is impor-tant since moisture content determines weight and weight is used in pricing.Water availability (aw). • Moisture content can also be related to the ‘aw’ or the water availability of the herb or spice. The level of 0.6 aw is generally accept-ed as a figure at and below which mould or microbial growth cannot occur.Microbiological measures.• There is a range of techniques available for counting the numbers of a pathogen in a sample.Pesticide levels.• Even though pesticide residue not pose a major hazard given the (low) average daily intakes of these products by consumers, many import-ing countries have strict regulation regarding the levels of pesticide.Bulk density/bulk index. • This is an important mea-sure, particularly in filling retail containers of herbs and spices.Mesh/particle size. • Many spices and herbs are ground to give easier dispersion in thefinal food prod-uct. This process also aids the dispersion of flavour.

How Processing of Spices adds value in export.An exporter of spices and related products needs to com-ply with the strict specifications and regulations required by importing countries and often faces challenging situa-tions when entire consignments get rejected due to incon-sistent product quality. To avoid incurring losses arising out of batch to batch variations in quality, he not only needs to carefully select the individual process equipment but also the entire process design for efficient separation of different product streams at each stage.

Cleaning is the beginning of a quality productCleaning should remove all the foreign matter that low-ers the quality and often results in rejection of complete batches of products by customer. Cleaning plants are de-signed to remove a wide range of impurities based on dif-ferences in size, shape, specific gravity, metallic properties and colour. Coarse and fine impurities like sticks, fibres, hay, sand, and other foreign matter like stones, glass and metal are eliminated by a series of highly efficient equip-ment’s like drum sieves, vibro graders, gravity separators,

aspiration channels, destoners and magnets. The product is also graded as per size and weight by using high perfor-

mance length graders, gravity separators and vibrating sieves. Finally a high product quality and purity can be achieved by an efficient optical sorter which removes foreign matter, dis-coloured seeds and aflatoxin infected products.

Spices Grinding – transforming whole spices into pow-dered productsGrinding of spices is an age-old technique. The main aim of spice grinding is to obtain smaller particle size with good product quality in terms of flavour and colour. . Grinding gives easier mixing in the final food product and aids the dispersion of flavour throughout the food. A food manufacturer will have specific particle size requirements and the processor will have to mill the herb or spice through sieves that will obtain the fineness required.

The fat in spices generally poses extra problems and is an important consideration in grinding. During grinding, the temperature of the product rises to a level in the range of

42–95°C, which varies with the oil and moisture content of the spices, but spices lose a significant fraction of their

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volatile oil or flavouring components due to this tempera-ture rise. The losses of volatile oil for different spices have been reported to be in the tune of 37% for nutmeg, 14% for mace, 17% for cinnamon and 17% for oregano.

Major Constraints in traditional processing of Spices: Maintenance of quality standards: Quality is the most critical factor in export market. Unhygienic processing steps and more manual intervention leads to potential quality threats in processing. The major quality hazard in spices processing is given under.

Banned Pesticide/herbicide• High levels of permitted pesticide/herbicide• Infestation by pests• Foreign matter-stones, hair, excreta• Poor microbiological quality• Mould growth after packing•

Loss of colour and aroma in processing: In the grinding process, heat is generated when energy is used to fracture a particle into a smaller size. This generated heat usually is detrimental to the product and results in some loss of flavour and quality.

Lesser yield in processing: un-efficient cleaning and sorting system lowers the plant yield by losing of good product in processing stages

Buhler Solutions for Spices ProcessingBuhler solutions in spices processing includes: • Cleaning • Grading

• Optical Sorting • Grinding• Sterilization• Plant engineering• Automation Buhler cleaning systems are designed for high efficient cleaning with minimum losses. Buhler complete cleaning system ensures that products meet the stringent export standards.

Among benefits on superior product quality and hygienic processing, Buhler engineered system also ensures gentle handling of products through proper conveying and well aspirated plants for a dust free environment.

As a pre-condition, hygienic processing of spices requires the process system to be free from human touch or other cross-contaminations. Buhler fully automated plants and closed process system for spices are particularly suited for this purpose. Processors who are looking to achieve high standards in spices processing specially for export, prefer Buhler plants as they can easily achieve international quality and food safety certifications like ISO, HACCP, BRC and so on. In addition, automated plants also offer savings in power consumption and labor costs, offering low cost of ownership to Buhler customers.

Offering complete solutions for a range of spices with throughput starting from 500 kg up to 4 tons per hour, Buhler has been a trusted partner for spice processors around the globe.

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New Methods Undertaken to Increase the Productivity in Cumin (Jeera)

Dr. M. A. Vaddoria, Prof. I. J. Golani and Prof. Y. A. KavathiyaVegetable Research Station, Junagadh Agricultural University

IntroductionCumin (Cumium cyminum L., Apiaceae) Cumin/Jeera or ‘Safed zeera’ comprises the dried pale-yellowish seeds of a slender annual herb, believed to be a native of Egypt and Syria; Turkestan and Eastern Mediterranean region. It is one of the oldest spices known since biblical times. Today the plant is grown extensively in Iran, India, Morocco, China, Southern Russia, Southern Europe and Turkey.

According to recent statistics, India ranks first in the world in area and production of cumin. India is also the largest consumer of cumin .Major types of cumin in the international trade are Iranian, Indian cumin, Egyptian cumin and Turkish cumin. In India, cumin is extensively grown in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Gujarat holds 63 per cent of the cumin area in India of 0.4 million hectares, while Rajasthan holds 33 per cent. India exports cumin to USA, Nepal, UAE, UK, Singapore and Malaysia. Among seed spices, cumin seed export value is the highest, followed by coriander.

Cumin can be cultivated in all types of soils but a well-drained; medium to heavy textured, medium to highly fertile soil with a good water-holding capacity is ideally suited for its cultivation. Sandy loam or loamy soil is supposed to be the best for its successful production. A soil pH range between 7.0 to 9.5 is reported to be opti-mum. The crop can tolerate salinity where other crops fail to grow. The incidence of wilt disease is higher in light

textured soils. Cumin thrives well in tropical and sub-tropical climates. It can be grown from sea level up to an elevation of 1800 to 3000 m MSL. It flourishes well in a mild cool climate rather than the hot plains. It is grown as a rabi crop during October- November. In areas where the atmospheric humidity is low during the months of Febru-ary and March, which coincides with the flowering and fruiting periods, it induces the development of diseases like powdery mildew and blight and insect pests to which the crop is highly susceptible.

National Scinerio Of Spices As Well As Cumin India is the largest producer, consumer, and exporter of spices in the world. During the crop year 2011-12 the country produced about 0.573 million tons from 3.03 Million hectares of area under spices. About 10% of this is exported annually.

The area under total spices as well as cumin exhibited increasing trend.

Year Total spices Cumin

Area(‘000 ha.)

Prod.(‘000 M.T.)

Area(‘000 ha.)

Prod.(‘000 M.T.)

2006-07 2448 3953 409 1772007-08 2617 4357 478 2652008-09 2629 4145 527 2832009-10 2464 4016 517 3042010-11 2940 5351 625 3362011-12 3030 5730 NA NA

(Source: Spices Board India)

State Scenario of Cumin:Gujarat is the top most in India so far as the production of minor seed spices is concerned. Among the seed spices,

India is the largest producer, consumer, and exporter of spices in the world. During the crop year 2011-12 the country produced about 0.573 million tons from 3.03

Million hectares of area under spices. About 10% of this is exported annually.

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cumin is the most popular cash crop and the economy of the Saurashtra as well as North Gujarat depends to a con-siderable extent on this crop due to short duration nature and has greater potential to grow even under restricted water availability gets better income compared to other traditional crops. At least 60% of India’s cumin output is from Gujarat, and Unjha is the world’s largest trading yard for the spice.

During 2011-12, Gujarat produced 1.17 million tonnes of seeds spices from an area of 0.571 million hectares. Cumin contributed maximum followed by fennel, corian-der, fenugreek, ajwain and dill. The major area of cumin falls in North Gujarat (Mehsana, Patan, Banaskantha, Sabarkantha and Gandhinagar districts), Saurashtra region (Surendranagar, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Junagadh districts) and Kutch as indicated in Table 1. The area, production and productivity of seed spices in Gujarat increased over the year 2005-06 to 2011-12 which is 34.03, 130.83 and 72.27 per cent, respectively during last five years which is higher than the national productivity of spices.

Production trend of Spices in the Gujarat:

Particulars/Year 2005-2006 2011-12 Increase (in %)

Area (‘000 ha) 426 571 34.03Production(‘000 T) 506 1168 130.83Productivity (Kg/

ha)1190 2050 72.27

Measures for increasing productivity of Cumin:Productivity of this crop can be increased by following ways:1. Increasing productivity of cumin through

Quality planting material production and supply•

Productivity enhancement technologies and systems • through better input Management Plant health management•

2. New market oriented technologies for secondary agri-culture and value addition3. Effective transfer of technologies to the target groups.

Increasing productivity of cumin by quality planting material production: To raise production levels by using quality planting ma-terials of improved varieties. Availability of good quality planting material is the key to the success of cumin cul-tivation. Hence selection of quality material for planting and its storage till the planting season is very important.

Productivity enhancement technologies and systems through better inputmanagement:There needs management of cropping system for efficient use, stable yield, quality and income. This will include generation of eco-region specific technologies based on maximum productivity of available natural resources, soil fertility and water. With the change in climate, increase in temperature and associated increase in light intensity may reduce the yield of cumin and other spices. Studies may be oriented towards varietal responses to climate change, identification of varieties which can adapt to climate change. IT based enabling mechanism for technology transfer to provide support for decision.

Plant health management:Integrated management system for emerging diseases and pests will be essential for plant health management to reduce the losses. Holistic approach would be needed for water, nutrient, pest and disease management and adop-tion of region wise agro-techniques.

Development of Secondary Agriculture and Value Ad-dition: To increase the acceptability, demand and value of cumin, developing new markets and value addition of cumin has great scope considering present International trade scenario. The research programmes should orient for this demand by focusing more attention on better agro techniques in product diversification, varieties suitable for such products and following GAP. Development of

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post-harvest technologies to improve product quality and minimize environmental impacts coupled with value addition, could be a focus for reducing crop losses and increasing marketability. Wind and solar energy must have to be utilized in mechanization and processing spice based products. Chemo profiling and identification of new flavour compounds, bio active principles for patenting are the new avenues to exploit potentials in value chain.

Effective TOT (Transfer of Technologies) to target groups:For effective technology dissemination, adoption and further refinement there must be participatory approach for effective transfer of technologies (TOT), monitoring and evaluation and also feedback for further refinement. Producers may be empowered through trainings and FLDs from ATIC and KVKs on proven technologies, for better adoption at field level. Private and public partnership as producers and distributors of certified planting material

and products will help in fulfilling the demand for quality planting materials in spices, particularly in cumin.

Quality Parameters Required for Export Produce: Wide scope for seed spice, particularly cumin processing industries in Gujarat and may enhance the export of cumin up to two to three times more to the present level if, qual-ity is upgraded as per Quality Specification / Regulation of the Importing Countries by:A. Mode of harvest at physiological stage of cumin crop to ensure qualityB. Value addition through processing and Post Har-vest Technology

Seed size, color, shape, luster, physical purity.• Cleanliness for dead insects, animal excreta, other • foreign material.Threshing, Drying, Cleaning and Grading in cement-• concrete threshing yard, Polishing and Packaging through machine. Immediate Transportation or Marketing and Safe and • sanitary storage.Green house drying up to 10-11 per cent moisture • level hence check the microbial contamination and able to maintain the color, aroma and essential oil.

C. To encourage the value added products in India.Encourage to entrepreneur by government through • suitable policies for agro based industries

D. Residue effect To make produce free from pesticide residue avoids • pesticides and fungicides before harvesting the crop. Low aflatoxin level and prevent microbial load • through solar drying.

For effective technology dissemination, adoption and further refinement there must be participatory approach for effective transfer of technologies (TOT), monitoring and evaluation and also feedback for further refinement.

Producers may be empowered through trainings and FLDs from ATIC and KVKs on proven technologies, for better adoption at field level. Private and public partnership as producers and distributors of certified planting material

and products will help in fulfilling the demand for quality planting materials in spices, particularly in cumin.

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Indian Large Cardamom Production Technology and Future Prospects

A.K. Vijayan, B.A. Gudade, T.N. Deka, U. Gupta & P. ChhetriIndian Cardamom Research Institute, Spices Board

IntroductionLarge cardamom (Amomum subulatum Roxb.), a member of the family, Zingiberaceae under the order Scitaminae, grows wild in forest ecosystem and is also domesticated in the sub-Himalayan region, at altitudes ranging from 1000 to 2200 m above mean sea level. It is one of the main cash crops cultivated in the state of Sikkim and Darjeeling district of West Bengal. It is also cultivated in parts of Ut-tarakhand and in some other North Eastern Hill states like Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. Nepal and Bhutan are the other two Himalayan countries where large cardamom is also cultivated. Sikkim is the largest producer of large cardamom and constitute lion share of Indian and world market.

Usage Matured large cardamom capsules are used as a spice and in several ayurvedic preparations. It contains 2-3% essential oil rich in cineole which is used for various food preparations, in confectionaries, making perfumes and other medicines. It possesses medicinal properties like carminative, stomachic, diuretic, cardiac stimulant and anthelmintics.

ClimateLarge cardamom prefers humid subtropical, semi-evergreen forests on steep hills of eastern sub-Hima-layan region. It is a shade loving plant (Sciophyte) grown in tracts with well distributed rainfall spread around 200 days with a total of about 3000-3500 mm/year. The plants are usually grown along jhoras (small springs), in moist and shady sides of mountain streams and along the hilly slopes.

Crop varietiesThere are mainly six popular cultivars of large cardamom viz., Ramsey, Ramla, Sawney, Varlangey, Seremna and Dzongu Golsey. Two high yielding varieties namely ICRI Sikkim 1 and ICRI Sikkim 2 were also released by Indian Cardamom Research Institute, Regional Research Station, Tadong, Gangtok, Sikkim in the year 2004.

Propagation of large cardamom is done through seeds and suckers. The Propagation through seeds enables produc-tion of large number of seedlings. Virus diseases are not transmitted through seeds and therefore the seedlings are

free from viral diseases, if adequate care is taken to isolate and protect the nursery from fresh infection. Plants raised

from seeds need not necessarily be high yielders even if they are collected from very productive plants due to

cross-pollination.

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PropagationPropagation of large cardamom is done through seeds and suckers. The Propagation through seeds enables produc-tion of large number of seedlings. Virus diseases are not transmitted through seeds and therefore the seedlings are free from viral diseases, if adequate care is taken to isolate and protect the nursery from fresh infection. Plants raised from seeds need not necessarily be high yielders even if they are collected from very productive plants due to cross-pollination. The major pollinator is bumble bees, (Bombus haemorrhoidalis and Bombus breviceps), even though honey bees also play a role in pollination. On the other hand, planting through suckers ensures true to the parents with a high productivity if they are collected from high yielding, disease free plants.

SoilLarge cardamom is generally grown in forest loamy soils having soil depth of few centimeters to several inches. Texture varies from sandy, sandy loam, silty loam to clay. In general, large cardamom soils are acidic in nature and majority of soils have pH ranges from 4.5 to 6.0 and more than 1% organic carbon content. On an average, these soils have high available Nitrogen and medium Phospho-rous and Potassium. Because of steepness of the terrain, chance of water logging is less, and water logged condi-tions are not suitable for the plants and adequate drainage is important for the better stand of the crop.

Selection of siteLarge cardamom grows well in forest loamy soils with gentle to medium slopes. Luxuriant growth is observed nearby perennial water sources. It performs well un-der partial shade (50%). Utis (Alnus nepalensis) is the most common shade tree and Utis- cardamom is a very good Agro-forestry system for sustainable production in the region. The other species of shade trees are Panisaj (Terminalia myriocarpa), Pipli (Bucklandia sp.), Malito (Macaranga denticulate), Argeli (Edgeworthes gardneri), Asare (Viburnus eruberens), Bilaune (Maesa cheria), Kharane (Symplocos sp.), Siris (Albizzia lebbeck), Faledo (Erythrina indica), Jhingani (Eurja tapanica), Chillowne (Schima wallichii) etc.

Land preparationThe land selected for planting is cleared of all under growth, weeds etc. Old large cardamom plants, if any, may also be removed. Pits of size 30 x 30 x 30 cm are prepared on contours at a spacing of 1.5 x 1.5 m from the centre of the pits. Wider spacing of 1.8 x 1.8 m is recom-mended for robust cultivars like Ramla, Ramsey, Sawney, Varlangey etc. While closer spacing 1.45 x 1.45 m is advised for non robust cultivators like Dzongu Golsey and Seremna. Pits are left open for weathering for a fortnight and then filled with topsoil mixed with cow dung compost / FYM @ 1-2 kg per pit. Pit making and filling operation should be completed in the third week of May before the onset of pre-monsoon showers.

PlantingPlanting is done in June – July when there is enough moisture in the soil. A mature tiller with 2- 3 immature tillers / vegetative buds is used as planting unit. For better production, quality planting materials are to be raised in the nurseries or to be collected from certified nurseries. Suckers / seedlings are planted by scooping a little soil from the centre of the pits and planted up to collar zone. Deep planting should be avoided. Staking is needed to avoid lodging from heavy rain and wind and mulching is done at the plant base.

MulchingMulching at the plant base with easily degradable organic materials is good for conserving both moisture

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and soil. Mulch improves the soil condition and the soil fertility. Dried organic matter, leaves, weeds etc can be used as mulching materials.

Application of manureFor sustainable good yield and to compensate the nutri-ent loss from the soil, replenishment of nutrients is very essential. Well decomposed cattle manure / compost or organic products @ 5 kg / plant and at least twice in a year in April-May and August- September are beneficial. If all the crop residues are recycled in the plantation and Farm Yard Manure (FYM) / Organic materials etc are applied, application of inorganic fertilizers may not be necessary.

Watering / IrrigationLarge cardamom plants cannot thrive well under water stress conditions. In the first year of planting watering is required at least once in 10 days during dry months in October to April for better growth in coming months. It is observed that productivity is higher in plantations where irrigation is provided. Depending on availability of water sources hose or sprinkler or flood irrigation through small channels is advised. Water harvesting pits made in between four plants of nearby rows during rainy season can support the water requirement of the crop in the dry season to some extent and is cheap.

Shade managementIt is noticed that heavy shade or less shade hinders crop growth and production. About 50% shade is found ideal. The lopping of branches of shade trees is very important and should be done before onset of monsoon. But at the

same time over-exposure to direct sunlight causes yellow-ing of leaves. Therefore judicious shade management is very important for good growth, timely flowering and for better crop.

Fig. 1 Large cardamom plantation under 50% shade

Weed controlWeed control in the plantations is the important opera-tion for maximum utilization of available soil moisture and nutrients by the plants. Three rounds of weeding are required for effective control of weed growth in initial two to three years. Weeding is generally done by using a sickle or by hand depending upon the intensity of weed growth. From around the plant base weeds are pulled out by hand and in inter-space needs only slash with sickle. Clean weeding is not advised as the crop is found to be a good colonizer. While weeding dried shoots and other thrashed materials are used as mulch around the plant base which will help to conserve moisture in the ensuing dry months, cover the exposed roots and prevent weed growth around the plant base. During flowering period, the thrashed materials should not cover the inflorescences.

Biodiversity managementThe alder (Alnus nepalensis) based cropping pattern is commonly practised in large cardamom ecosystem. The tree is beneficial as it takes care of the nutrient require-ments since alder is a nitrogen fixing plant. Growing wild varieties act as a rodent repellent. Since cardamom is planted in good forested areas, it is observed that such

Weed control in the plantations is the important opera-tion for maximum utilization of available soil moisture

and nutrients by the plants. Three rounds of weeding are required for effective control of weed growth in initial two to three years. Weeding is generally done by using

a sickle or by hand depending upon the intensity of weed growth. From around the plant base weeds are pulled out by hand and in inter-space needs only slash with sickle.

Clean weeding is not advised as the crop is found to be a good colonizer.

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plantation sites also become good habitats for wild ani-mals and birds.

Harvesting and curingThe indication of time of harvest is when the seeds of top most capsules turn brown. As soon as the said colour appears and to enhance maturity bearing tillers are cut at a height of 30-40 cm from ground and left for another 10-15 days for full maturity. The spikes are harvested by using special knives known as “Elaichichhuri”. The harvested spikes are heaped and capsules separated and dried. The cured capsules are rubbed on wire mesh for cleaning and removal of calyx (tail).

Traditionally cardamom is cured in Bhatti, where capsules are dried by direct heating. Under this system the cardamom comes in direct contact with smoke which turns the capsules to dark brown or black with smoky smell. Improved curing techniques are presently available in which cardamom is processed to give quality and appearance. One such method is ICRI Improved Bhatti curing system developed by Indian Cardamom Research Institute, Regional Station, Tadong where cardamom is dried through indirect heating.

The system is available in 200 & 400 kg (fresh capsules) capacities, cost is estimated at 12,000/- and 21,000/- re-spectively. The bhatti has been popularized by Spices Board Regional Office at Gangtok and Zonal Offices at Tadong, Mangan, Jorethang and Kalimpong through subsidized development scheme. In this cardamom is dried by indirect heating at 45-50o C. Curing is done till moisture content of the produce is brought down to 10-12 % level and gives metallic sound while shuffling.

Fig. 2 Large cardamom capsules before curing

Fig.3 Large cardamom capsules after curing with ICRI improved bhatti

Packaging and marketingThe properly dried capsules should be allowed to cool and then packed in polythene lined jute bags. The bags may be stored on wooden platform away from sidewall to avoid absorption of moisture and thereby to avoid fungal growth on the stored produce.

Production trend and future prospectsThe glory of large cardamom is coming back after decade long low yield, low quality and low price spell. There was a sale of 4 MT in 2010-11, the first year of organized sales of large cardamom through open auction. That went up to 16MT in 2011-12. This year, large cardamom sale is expected to be around 40 MT through auctioning. A maximum price of 1070/kg of dried capsules of large cardamom was realized during the year 2013. If this trend continues the future of large cardamom is bright and there are great opportunities for farming community.

Large cardamom area under cultivation and production in India are given in Table 1.

Table 1. Large cardamom area under cultivation and year wise productionYear Area (hectares) Production

( tonnes)2008-2009 27034 43002009-2010 27034 41802010-2011 26984 3913

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2011-2012 * 26460 38602012-2013 # 26060 4145

*Estimate, # Advance estimateSource: State Agri/Hort. Departments, Large cardamom estimate by Spices Board 2011-12 & 2012-13: DASD, Calicut.

Large cardamom gives recognition to Sikkim and Darjeel-ing hills. It not only contributes to the economy of this region but also play an important role in the ecosystem and contribute to the human health. It is a spice crop of significant economic importance. This crop has helped to alleviate from poverty to many small household. Com-pared to traditional crops, the income from large carda-mom is three to four times higher. Sikkim produces 85 percent of India’s large cardamom, which enjoys a high value market in Pakistan, Singapore and the Middle-East. It is also exported to UAE, Iran, USA, Afghanistan, UK, Malaysia, South Africa, Japan and Argentina. The major domestic markets in India are Amritsar, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Kanpur.

The major causes of low productivity are lack of im-proved planting materials, viral and fungal diseases, lack of proper shade management, moisture stress conditions and climatic change. Promising large cardamom variet-ies coupled with optimum inputs and technologies can increase yield up to 850-1000 kg/ha. Demand can be raised by adding new value added products from large cardamom oil. Income of the farmers can be doubled by using the healthy, good planting materials, application of FYM, weed management, irrigation during dry period, diseases and pests management. Proper management of plantation is the prime reason for successful cultivation. Being a multiple crop, there is an urgent need to increase the area under its cultivation for increasing the productiv-ity of this crop.

ReferencesGupta U., Gudade B.A., Chhetri P. and Harsha K. N. (2012) Large cardamom- the lifeline inSikkim. Indian Horticulture Vol. 57 (4): 7-10.

Gudade B.A., Chhetri P., Gupta U., Deka T. N. and Vi-jayan A.K. (2013) Traditional practices of large carda-mom in Sikkim and Darjeeling, Life Sciences Leaflets Vol. 9(9): 62-68.

Harsha K.N., Deka T.N., Sudharshan M.R., Saju K.A. and Gupta U. (2011) Cultivation of large Cardamom, Extension leaflets of ICRI, RS, Spices Board, Tadong, Sikkim: 1-4.

Gudade B.A., Chhetri P., Gupta U., Deka T. N. and Vi-jayan A. K. (2013) Organic cultivation of large cardamom (Amomum subulatum Roxb.) in Sikkim. Popular Kheti Vol. 1 (3): 4-9.

Gupta U., Chhetri P. and. Gudade B.A (2012) The ef-fect of different treatments on seed germination of large cardamom. Green Farming International Journal Vol.3 (6):747-749.

Gupta U., Chhetri P. and Gudade B.A. (2012) Collection, characterization, evaluation and conservation of germ-plasm of large cardamom. Green Farming International Journal Vol. 3(4):499-500.

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Ginger Processing & Marketing in the North Eastern India – An Overview

S Bhattacharjee, Former Managing Director & Executive Director, NERAMAC

North Eastern Region (NER) is endowed with huge untapped natural resources and is acknowledged as the eastern gateway for the coun-try’s ‘Look East Policy’. Region is endowed with a varied topography and agro-climactic conditions which offer vast potential for agriculture, horticulture and forestry. However, the region is lagging in agricultural development contrary to the national ethos. Reasons include a lack of appropriate strategies for the develop-ment of natural resources, inadequate infrastructure facilities etc in this sector.

Among spices, Ginger is one of the oldest spices with a distinct flavour and pungency. It has a wide range of uses that include culinary, flavourant in soft drinks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, confectionary, pickles and pharmaceutical prepara-tions. India is the largest grower of ginger and also the largest producer of the dry ginger in the world. It is cultivated in almost all the states of the country. In India Kerala, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal are the major ginger growing states while in north east Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Ma-

nipur, Tripura and Nagaland account for 24.6% of area under ginger and 24.1% of India’s ginger production.

North Eastern region is one among the highest ginger productivity areas in the world. The agro-climatic conditions of North East India, characterized by warm and humid summers with abundant rainfall and cool winters are favorable for ginger cultivation. Ginger produced in the region also has higher oil and oleo-resin content, making it one of the best in quality. The traditional system of ginger cultivation in the north east is jhum system or shifting cultivation which is prevalent in all the states except Sikkim.

North Eastern States offer immense potential for large-scale cultivation of spices. It is anticipated that the region can create exportable surpluses at competitive prices so that the top slot occupied by the country in the international spice market would be maintained. It also gives large-scale employment opportunities and wealth creation in the area. Region produces a variety of spices including chilies, ginger, turmeric, large cardamoms, black pepper, tejpatta etc. Ginger and

In the north east, apart from improved varieties like Nadia, China, Varada etc., a number of local cultivars exist. These varieties are high yielder of rhizomes as compared to standard cultivars like Nadia and Rio-De-Janeiro but have more fiber content. The ginger produced in higher altitude contains high oleoresin and gives higher oil recovery.

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turmeric are prominent among them and their cultivation is undertaken as a cash crop mostly in jhum fields spread over the hills & tribal areas of the entire region.

In the north east, apart from improved varieties like Na-dia, China, Varada etc., a number of local cultivars exist. These varieties are high yielder of rhizomes as compared to standard cultivars like Nadia and Rio-De-Janeiro but have more fiber content. The ginger produced in higher altitude contains high oleoresin and gives higher oil re-covery. The region as a whole produces over 756 thou-sand MT of raw ginger (2012-13). The product is mostly marketed in the fresh form. The local demand being very limited, roughly 70- 80per cent of the total production is reportedly available as marketable surplus from the region. A sizeable quantity of ginger is wasted in transit because of the perishable nature of the commodity.

Though North east contributes only 2.8% to the total agricultural production, underscoring the low productivity of the region. Productivity of Ginger in the states of north east is as under: Sl. No. State Productivity

(MT/ha)1. Arunachal Pradesh 5.502. Assam 6.88

3. Manipur 11.57

4. Meghalaya 5.795. Mizoram 4.926. Nagaland 6.907. Sikkim 5.398. Tripura 4.22

Source: NHB and State Horticulture Department

Assam is the largest producer & trader of ginger from NE Region. Maran and Nadia are the most popular varieties of ginger grown in Assam. Major identified production clusters are Sonitpur, Udalguri, Golaghat, Tinsukia, Karbi Anglong & North Cachar Hills. Karbi Anglong has set new dimensions in ginger production and trading. A group of more than 1500 small and marginal tribal farmers are the part of Ginger Growers’ Co-operative Marketing Federation (Gin-Fed), an initiative of Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojona. Gin-Fed supplies directly to Azadpur Mandi, New

Delhi. Farmers through middlemen were getting as low as Rs 3-4 per kg but Gin-Fed minimized the distress selling and facilitate fair price. It also arranges the procurement, primary processing, marketing information, obtaining or-der and shipment as that of NERAMAC which is catering the farmers & producers of ginger for quite long a period.

Farmers under Gin-Fed have been provided ‘G-card’ who doesn’t sell the produce anywhere else except Gin-Fed. G-card assists in credit facility from public sector banks. Gin-Fed charges only for handling at Rs 1.50 per kg and

administrative cost at Rs 0.30-1.00 per kg. Gin-Fed has tie-ups with major traders in India such as ITC, NAFED, NERAMAC, Stacon, Ray Farm and Ace Agro etc Though ginger is grown in naturally organic condition but Gin-Fed is in the process of certification of the fields to facilitate direct export to European countries. Harvesting of the rhizomes starts in October which con-tinues till January. Value Addition at Farm Level is done by the farmers like cleaning, washing & packing of the rhizomes before taking it to the markets. Rhizomes are packed in gunny bags which accommodates 50 kg each. Farmers usually sell the rhizome to the aggregator at the village level, who then takes it to the main market where it is sold to wholesaler. Post-harvest & handling loss during transportation & at wholesaler’s / retailer’s level is about 2 % each. Yield comes to 8-10 MT per ha. Thus, the produc-tion cost per kg comes to be Rs 10 per kg with an average selling price of Rs 12-15 per kg. In Meghalaya, ginger is cultivated on slopes. The most popular varieties under cultivation are Nadia and Vara in the identified major cluster of Ri Bhoi, East Garo Hills and West Garo Hills. Nadia is popular due to its low fiber content. Farmers in Meghalaya generally use their own

Usually, the farmers sell the ginger on the basis of rhizome size; small sized rhizomes for Rs 5-6 per kg, me-

dium sized for Rs 8-10 per kg and large sized rhizomes for Rs 12-15 per kg. The

aggregator / middlemen then carry the produce to the main market where it is sold to the wholesaler who sells it

further to the retailer.

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seeds (rhizomes) for cultivation purpose. In the field, the losses due to insects, pests and diseases range from 1-2 percent.

Harvesting is done as the Ginger attains harvest maturity in 8-9 months. Peak harvest starts from November & extends till January. On an average, 8-10 MT of ginger is harvested per ha. Value addition at farm level is carried out by farmers by manual grading of rhizomes based on size (small, medium and large). Price of rhizomes varies with size. Most of the farmers sell the produce to the mid-dlemen or aggregator or the trader from the distant market in the village itself. Rhizomes are packed in gunny bags size 50 kg which costs to farmers’ Rs 15-20/gunny bag.

Usually, the farmers sell the ginger on the basis of rhizome size; small sized rhizomes for Rs 5-6 per kg, medium sized for Rs 8-10 per kg and large sized rhizomes for Rs 12-15 per kg. The aggregator / mid-dlemen then carry the produce to the main market where it is sold to the wholesaler who sells it further to the retailer. The traders from other states i.e, Guwahati, Kolkata and Silchar, usually come to the farm gate for collection, carry the ginger to their respective markets in the state to sell it to the wholesalers and retailers. Transportation cost of one gunny bag from the village to the main market by jeep / bus varies between 30-40. At the wholesaler’s level & re-tailers’ level, the post-harvest losses vary from 0.5 to 1 %.

Indian Institute of Spices Research, Calicut has evolved Varada, a new variety of ginger, which is being multiplied at Ginger Development Station, Umsning, Meghalaya and the performance of the variety is encouraging. Local varieties of ginger contain higher quantity of gingerol compared to variety like Nadia and Varada etc.

NERAMAC, a central PSU has set up an Integrated Gin-ger Processing Plant (IGPP) of 5TPD at EPIP, Byrnihat in Meghalaya. IGPP is based on the award winning Wet

Technology (Swing Technology) developed by National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science & Technology (NI-IST), Thiruvananthapuram under Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for extraction of Ginger oil and powder from the smaller rhizomes & the broken. It is very well suited to the North Eastern States where there is high rainfall with less exposure of sun. Good size ginger rhizomes are cleaned, washed, graded and organically wax coated for better shelf life besides making ginger oil and powder production. This Plant functions as a service centre to provide proper facilities required for value ad-dition of ginger so that consumer appealing products can

be made & launched in the market or sold to food manufacturers. Another objective of the plant is to assist in export of ginger by providing an environ-ment where ginger can be made ready for export through proper processing. It is also tried successfully in Manipur & Sikkim

In Sikkim, ginger is grown in all four districts viz.

North Sikkim, East Sikkim, South Sikkim & West Sikkim. It is one of the major spice crops which contribute 14 % to the total ginger production in the NER. Local variet-ies Bhaisey, Majaole & Gurubathaney etc. are used for cultivation. Farmers use the seed rhizomes preserved in the last season for sowing. Crop is mainly rain-fed as ir-rigation facilities are limited in the state. No major insects, pests or diseases are noticed. Losses during the production at field level are approximately 5-6%.

Harvesting of rhizomes is carried out in October and continues till January. The yield in one ha area is 5-6 MT of ginger rhizomes. Farmers carry out the cleaning and washing of rhizomes at the field level which are then packed in gunny bags. A small gunny bag which accom-modates 25 kg costs Rs 10. Government of Sikkim has created a facility of Ginger processing in the state.However, a study conducted by Assam Agriculture Uni-

NERAMAC, a central PSU has set up an Integrated Gin-ger Processing Plant (IGPP) of 5TPD at EPIP, Byrnihat in Meghalaya. IGPP is based on the award winning Wet Technology (Swing Technology) developed by National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science & Technology (NI-

IST), Thiruvananthapuram under Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for extraction of Ginger oil and powder from the smaller rhizomes & the broken. It is very well suited to the North Eastern States where

there is high rainfall with less exposure of sun.

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versity, Jorhat estimates that the post harvest loss is about 10.5 per cent during handling and transportation. Ginger could be made into differ-ent products like ginger oil, ginger oleoresin etc which can be prepared for export, Dried ginger can also be prepared and it may be either sold as such or in the form of an off white to very light brown powder. The dried ginger or ginger powder is generally used in manufacturing of ginger bran-dy, wine and beer. In the north east, ginger ale is a very common prepara-tion. Ginger oil is primarily used as a flavoring agent in confectionary and for soft drinks. There is a huge scope to create facilities for making Ginger preserve, candy, crystallized ginger, ginger chips, salted chips etc from Ginger & can cater to the neighboring countries.

Though Nadia variety is popular among the farmers on productivity aspect, local medium sized variet-ies are still grown in larger area in north east. In practice, there are three primary products of ginger like fresh ginger, preserved ginger in syrup or brine & dried ginger. Preserved & dried products are the major forms in which ginger is internationally traded. Fresh ginger is of less importance in international trade but this is the major form in which ginger is con-sumed in the producing areas and also in the domestic markets from north east. Dried ginger is used for the preparation of its extractives, ginger oleoresin and ginger oil for domestic culinary purposes. Many a times, it also finds extensive use in the flavor-ing of processed foods. Ground dried

ginger is used in foodstuffs especially in bakery and desserts. Preserved gin-ger is used both for domestic culinary purposes and commercially in the manufacture of processed foods such as jams, marmalades & also in cakes and confectionery.

NERAMAC’s intervention in the trade has supported the ginger grow-ers manifold in last few years in the region. Procurement mechanism of fresh ginger is done by NERAMAC either through the support price mechanism or through direct pro-curement. Support price mechanism is done in states like Mizoram & Arunachal Pradesh when the state government identifies NERAMAC as the procurement agency and supports the procurement by partial funding & by fixing the bench mark price of Ginger for a fixed location. General procurement & marketing is done through Azadpur Mandi, New Delhi; Posta market, Kolkata; Sitapur Termi-nal Market, Lucknow; Sabji Mandi, Jabbalpur & through its regulated market at Siliguri etc.

NE Region’s comparative advantages in producing spices, more promi-nently ginger can be tapped by setting up tiny / small scale processing units for the local market which will also boost rural employment. This set-up is economically viable as well as doable since most of the production in the region is in pockets and they can be processed for value addition and marketed locally. Any improve-ment in the ginger market chain will have huge impacts on the local economy and quality of life. The aim

is to remove the constraints that were preventing an effective marketing system to operate and to assist small scale producers to acquire the ability to participate on favorable terms in the open market.

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Pepper Cultivation in Non-Traditional (Assam) Area of India

G.C.Acharya and Himadri Rabha, Sr Scientist and Scientist-in-charge and Research AssociateCPCRI RC Kahikuchi, Guwahati, Assam

Black pepper (Piper nigrum L.), the king of spices, is one of the major export earners among the various crops grown in India. Pepper is culti-vated both as a monocrop and also as a mixed crop in perennial plantation gardens in many parts of the country. It is estimated that in India pepper is being cultivated in about 180 thou-sand hectares and producing about 43000 metric tonnes of dried pepper (International Pepper Community) during 2012.

The Pepper crop has low productivi-ty as compared to other pepper grow-ing areas and the main reason for the low productivity of pepper is that most of the production comes from the small and marginal holdings, where scientific cultivation practices

are not followed. As the scope for increase in area is limited, the other alternatives will be to adopt pepper as mixed crop in the existing plantations including in homestead gardens and increase the productivity by following scientific production practices to meet the domestic and export demand. Pepper is sufficiently shade tolerant; and is ideal for mixed cropping with coconut and arecanut palms and can be conveniently trained to the palms once the stem grows to certain height. In this publication, efforts are made to explore the potentials of black pepper cultivation in Assam

Indian agriculture is predominated by small and marginal farms, which constitute more than three-fourths of the total farm holdings. Small and marginal farmers are more risk-averse than medium or large farmers, and hence they are expected to adopt higher degree of farm diversification or intensification (viz., mixed crop-ping/ multiple cropping) of protection against natural and economic risks.

This is a practice through which farm productivity is increased by simulta-neous cultivation of crops. Sustained research for the last five decades able to establish the benefits of black pep-per cultivation under the plantation crops through mixed cropping/ High

density multiple cropping system preferably with coconut and arecanut.

Assam is divided into six agro-cli-matic zones; North Bank Plain Zone, Upper Brahmaputra Valley Zone, Central Brahmaputra Valley Zone, Lower Brahmaputra Valley Zone, Ba-rak Valley Zone and Hill Zone. The cultivation of arecanut and coconut is characterized by scattered nature of plantation and restricted to household planting literally called “bari system of planting”. The scattered nature of plantation distract the farmers for adopting modern practices.

The land to man ratio in Assam is estimated to be around 0.27 hectare/person and the average size of land holding is around 1.31 hectare. About 80% of the farmers in the North East Region belong to small (<1.44 ha.) and marginal (<0.40ha.) category. Moreover, with increase in popula-tion, the average size of holding is gradually coming down over the years.

Due to the presence of hilly terrains, the large land holding is not feasible and therefore, the average plot size is too small to adopt mechanization in agriculture and which leads to the subsistence farming and is predomi-nant in this region of the country.

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Small and marginal farmers, who are more risk-averse than the large farm-ers, are expected to adopt higher de-gree of farm diversification or intensi-fication for protection against natural and economic risk. This means that these farmers can make use of the production complementarities to reap the benefits of synergism through ap-propriate choice of crop combinations or other economic activities.

This would help them to achieve maximum resource use efficiency through i) intensive use of land, ii) optimum use of time, iii) benefits from additional crop/ enterprise, iv) reuse of farm waste and byproducts, v) rational use of farm family labour and vi) integration of farm and non-farm activities.

Opportunities for mixed cropping in arecanut / coconut gardensIn Assam, arecanut (Areca catechu L.) is grown in an area of about 75 thousand hectares and coconut is grown in an area of about 22 thou-sand hectares. Arecanut as a sole crop does not fully utilize the natural resources as soil, space and light. The compact nature of arecanut crown, raised well above the ground (10 to 15 m), allows more sunlight to pass down to ground and maintain high humidity which, in turn, favour excellent growth of shade loving crops.

Studies at CPCRI have revealed that orientation and structure of arecanut canopy permits 32.7 –47.8 per cent of incident radiation to penetrate down depending on the time of the day. Rooting pattern revealed that arecanut palms planted at 2.7 x 2.7 m spacing could use effectively only 30 per cent

of the land area. The normal cultural operations are also confined within about 75-80 cm radius from the base. Arecanut plantations are mostly locat-ed in fertile soils with good moisture holding in the soil throughout the year except for a few months in the summer. Thus, the arecanut planta-tions also are more ideal for inter/mixed cropping. Pepper raised ex-clusively as mixed crop in homestead gardens in Kerala and Karnataka and over 90 per cent pepper is trained on coconut and arecanut trunks.

Similar studies conducted at Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI), Kasaragod have shown that the effective root zone of an adult bearing coconut palm growing under normal management is confined later-ally within a radius of 2 m around the base of the palm. The vertical distribution of roots have shown that the top 30 cm layer soil was practi-cally devoid of functioning roots and that about 86 per cent of the roots were found between 30 and 120 cm depth from the surface. However, the morphological features of the coconut palm necessitate its planting at 7.5 x 7.5 m spacing. These observations indicate that 77.7 per cent of the total available land area in a pure stand of coconut is not effectively utilized by the coconut roots.

The venetian structure and orienta-tion of coconut leaves permit sizeable amount of solar radiation incident on the crown to penetrate to lower lev-els. Making use of the underutilized soil space and solar radiation in mono crop stands, a variety of crops having different stature, canopy shape and size and rooting habits can be mix planted to form compatible combina-

tions. Such mixed plantations will intercept and utilize light at different vertical intervals and forage soil at different layers and columns maxi-mizing biomass production per unit area of land, time and inputs. (Plate 1-Black peeper in arecanut)

Further, coconut/arecanut being perennial crops, the land planted with this crop remains committed to it for several decades. To meet the diverse needs of farm families, there is only little or no prospects of bringing fresh land under cultivation of these crops. Mono crop, provides employ-ment only for a part of year and farm families have to remain unemployed or have to go elsewhere searching employment.

It is, therefore, imperative that the production, productivity and prof-itability of the smallholdings are maximized considerably through more on-farm employment genera-tion. Practicing mixed cropping in coconut/arecanut plantation offers considerable scope for increasing production, productivity per unit area, time and inputs by more efficient utilization of resources like sunlight, soil, water and labour. Studies carried out at CPCRI and elsewhere have also revealed that pepper is the most compatible perennial spice crop with arecanut and can be profitably grown as mixed crop.

Assam is the single largest tea-growing region in the world. Total area under tea in Assam is estimated around 312,210 ha. Shade trees in the tea areas are being used to grow black pepper vines. The initiation was taken by many of the tea growers and some of the best known companies are

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targeting to cover 100% of all shade trees with black pepper in tea estates. (plate 2-Black pepper in shade trees of tea estate)

The final estimate produced by the National Horticulture Board (2012-13) shows pepper is grown in an area of 3.72 thousand hectares with a production of 1.99 metric tonnes. The major clusters for black pepper is mainly situated at Jorhat, Lakhim-pur, Tinsukia, Golaghat, Dibrugarh, Shivsagar. The major arrivals of black pepper to Assam in from South India and major dispatches to whole NE region and West Bengal

Climate and soil requirements for pepperPepper requires a warm and humid climate like coconut and arecanut. Though an annual rainfall of 2500 mm is ideal for the proper growth of the crop, it can also come up well in low rainfall areas with good distribu-tion. Very long spells of dry weather are unfavourable for the crop growth. The plant tolerates a minimum temperature of 100 C and maximum of 400 C, the optimum being 20- 350 C. It can be grown up to an altitude of 1200 m from sea level but lower altitudes are preferable.

Pepper prefers a light porous and well-drained soil rich in organic matter. Water stagnation in the soil, even for a very short period is injuri-ous for the plant. So, plantations established in heavy textured soils in locations where drainage facilities are inadequate should be avoided for pepper mixed cropping. Sites with slight to moderate slopes are ideal for pepper cultivation, as these promote drainage. Slopes facing south are to

be avoided as far as possible. When such slopes are to be used for cultiva-tion, the young plants are to be suf-ficiently protected from the scorching sun during summer months.

Selection of pepper variety and multiplicationThe improved varieties emerging from breeding programmes need to be tested as mixed crop in arecanut gardens from time to time to find out the best variety suitable for growing under arecanut shade. Black pepper hybrid Panniyur-I is well suited for well spaced (2.7 x 2.7 m) arecanut gardens where the infiltration of light is higher and Karimunda for more densely planted gardens.

In recent years, many new pepper va-rieties/hybrids have been developed in the country and CPCRI has already initiated field-screening trials of these varieties/hybrids as mixed crops in arecanut gardens at various locations. Select mother plants which give regu-larly high yields and possess other desirable attributes such as vigorous growth, maximum number of spikes per unit area, long spikes, close set-ting of berries, disease tolerance etc. Selected mother plants should be in the age group of 5-12 years. Rooted seedlings from these selected mother palms are propagated vegetatively from shoot cuttings.

Agrotechniques for pepper mixed cropping Pepper mixed cropping is pos-sible only in adult arecanut/coconut gardens. Rooted seedlings of pepper raised in polybags may be planted in 0.5 m3 pits at a distance of 0.75 m away from the bole of the palm on the Northern side. The pits have to

be half filled with a mixture of farm-yard-manure or compost, 5 kg neem cake and topsoil. The soil around the pit may be treated with 50 g Tricho-derma culture as a precaution against quick wilt of pepper. The vines may be trained on to the palm as and when they grow and tied to the trunk for the first two years. When black pepper is grown on arecanut/coconut, the ma-nurial and fertilizer dose required for black pepper should be added to the fertilizer requirement of palm. Each palm + pepper combination should receive an additional dose of 10 kg of farm yard manure or compost, 100g N, 40g P2O5 and 140g K2O to sup-port the pepper crop starting from the third year of planting.

These fertilizers have to be applied for an adult vine every year in two equal split doses during May and September along with the fertilizers for arecanut/coconut. Mixed crop-ping of pepper should be practiced under assured water supply condi-tions throughout the year. Sprinkler or perfo-irrigation is preferable as it wets the entire surface. Care should be taken not to damage the surface roots of pepper while doing cultural operations to arecanut and fertilizer application. The pepper vine starts bearing from third year of plant-ing and reach potential bearing by 10th year. On an average 1 kg black pepper can be obtained from a single vine trained on areca/coconut palms under optimum management condi-tions.

Performance of pepper as mixed crop Arecanut plantations in India are invariably put into some kind of intercropping. Pepper from early

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days was raised on areca standards in Kerala and Karnataka. It is becom-ing a popular mixed crop in the entire areca growing regions now. The advantages of pepper mixed crop-ping in areca plantations are not fully exploited by most of the farmers due to the fear that growing black pepper on arecanut may depress the yield of arecanut. Experimental data from mixed cropping of arecanut and black pepper showed that there was no detrimental effect on the yield of arecanut palms due to training black pepper on them.

A high-density multispecies cropping model consisting of arecanut-pepper trained on areca palm-banana-tur-meric-pineapple studied under three levels of fertilizer management full, two-third and one-third dose of rec-ommended fertilizers for productivity at CPCRI Research Centre, Kahi-kuchi, Assam. Nine years of mean economic yield revealed that full dose of recommended fertilizer application resulted in higher production with areca chali yield of 2405 kg/ha, dry pepper yield of 1252 kg/ha, pineapple

fruit yield of 988 kg/ha and 2127 kg turmeric/ha. The major share was de-rived from the main crop of arecanut (48%) followed by the component crop of black pepper (43%). This clearly demonstrated the potential of pepper as a mixed/component crop in arecanut plantations.

Important disease of pepper no-ticed in Assam:

Quick wilt:• Caused by Phy-tophthora capsici. Pathogen in-fects leaves, spikes, collar region and roots. Collar infection causes sudden collapse of the vine, other symptoms are foliar yellowing and defoliation. High soil mois-ture and relative humidity during the monsoon favour the infec-tion and spread. Removal of the infected dead vines and burning them, providing proper drainage, avoiding damage to root system and stem of vines helps in reduc-ing the disease. Spray with 1% Bordeaux mixture and 0.25 % Ridomil alternatively and drench the basin with the same chemi-

cal twice, once before monsoon and one after the monsoon. Application of bio-control agent like Trichoderma viride @ 50g mixed with 500g compost at the time of planting can be done. Slow wilt:• Caused by nema-todes. During dry months, foliar yellowing, defoliation and die back symptoms appear in vines and during monsoon some of the vines recover and put forth fresh foliage and again they show decline symptoms during dry months, thus gradually loosing vigour and productivity. Remove the severely affected vines, treat the pit with phorate @15 g or carbofuran @50 g at the time of planting. Apply phorate @30g or carbofuran @ 100g/ vine twice in a year. Application of neem cake @ 1kg/ vine can also be adopted along with fertilizer application.

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Overview on Indian NutmegAnand Kishor Kuruwa

Kishore Spices Company

Nutmeg can be called as perhaps the only nut that is widely used for sweet, savory and in beverages. Therefore I call them as “King of Nuts”

Botanical name: Myristica fragrans HouttFamily: MyristicaceaeIndian name: Jaiphal

Nutmeg is originated from South East Asia, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. It was also migrated to Greneda. Indonesia used to be the largest producing country after Grenada’s cyclone has devastated their entire crop. However, of late the trade estimate shows that India has become the largest grower of Nutmeg, producing around 10,000 MT, out of the Global estimated production of around 25,000 MT. India and Indonesia together contributes around 80% of the world production and exports. India has large domestic consumption and import good quantities of both nutmeg and mace.

In India the peak harvesting season begins by mid May upto end July. It is mainly grown in the state of Kerala across its districts, chiefly around the river banks with a plenty availability of water. Following its success and highly remunerative for the cultivators, states like Karna-taka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have followed suite in the recent years.

The nutmeg market in Indonesia has been stable for some time. Over the last two years, prices have been range bound with a slightly bearish bias. This has largely hap-pened due to increase in production areas due to good prices. The Indian, Indonesian and Sri Lankan crop is well spread out and supply comes out round the year. Greneda also is on the revival phase of its Nutmeg pro-duction and it is slowly reemerging as a potential producer and supplier for the world market.

We expect the market to remain stable over the next month or so. The markets are relatively short covered in Nutmegs,

and we see a lot of pent up demand. The prices have been very stable and not showing signs of any further decline.Major uses of Nutmeg: Nutmeg and mace are used in food processing industry and also used to flavor a number of products like masala, flavoured milk, sauces, cakes, cookies confectionery and candies. They are also used in various mughali cuisines in India. Nutmeg is also used for manufacturing of essential oil, used heavily in pharmaceu-tical and perfumery industry. It is used as major ingredi-ents in cough syrup and in toothpaste. Another big use is in beverages like Coke and Pepsi and other soft drinks. Nutmeg butter is used as an industrial lubricant.

The production area in hectres is estimated around 17485 and the production in Tons is about 12,500. The shell weight constitutes 30% and mace weight 10%. Indian consumption is estimated to be around 4000 MT. Major importing countries are European Union, USA, Middle East and Africa

EXPORT OF INDIAN NUT-MEG COUNTRYWISE

COUNTRY QNTY IN MTMIDDLE EAST 950VIETNAM 625U.S.A 300SINGAPORE 225RUSSIA 150BRAZIL 125SOUTH AFRICA 100GERMANY 85EGYPT 65ISRAEL 60AUSTRALIA 60ARGENTINA 75DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 50PAKISTAN 60EUROPEAN UNION 50

India further imports 750 Tons of Nutmeg and 550 Tons of Mace especially from its neighbouring country Sri Lanka to use for its oleoresin industry since the oil content and variety is better suited for the extraction purposes.

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ITC’s Sustainability Initiative to Improve Chilli Farmer Livelihoods

Challenges & Opportunity In Indian Landscape Sanjeev Bisht, Business Head - Spices, ITC Ltd

Spices are commercially cultivated crops which find prominent place in exotic recipes, gourmet dishes and every day meal. Over the years, growing awareness of chemical resi-dues has led to consumers demand-ing safe food product and stringent Government regulations which require integrated effort by farm-ers, processors and dealers. Since India is one of the largest producer, consumer and exporter of spices, there is a big market opportunity. Inherent problems in the landscape of agriculture (small scale farming) and intense usage of natural and arti-ficial resources poses a challenge and demands sustainable practices.

Most of the farmers cultivating spices in India are small farmers (av-erage land holding of 1.5 ha).They lack access to latest technologies and innovations. Since, agriculture is the

sole source of income for small farm-ers they resist changes in package of practices and do not readily adopt contemporary practices. Low average

returns on investment, poor growth of agricultural profitability, good returns of competing crops and over-usage of resources are threatening the sustain-ability of the business. The scenario poses a challenge and an opportunity which calls for unique business mod-els, crafted to ensure sustainable sup-ply of produce with desired attributes which will simultaneously augment our environment and social capital.

what we do & how we do it?ITC shares a century long relation-ship with the farming community reaching directly to farm gate, linking the farming community to global

businesses and international best practices. ITC’s unique backward integration programme, based on the cornerstones of environment integrity, social well being, economic resilience and governance, aims at ‘produc-ing the buy rather than buying the produce’. ITC’s package of practices is designed not only to meet stringent regulations of various countries like EU, Japan and US but also continu-ally innovate and improve. Contrary to conventional approach of a focus

on only economic performance, our programme is designed to revolve around farmer profitability whilst ensuring environmental and social in-tegrity. Farm interventions have been customized to suit farmers and bring about productivity increase, product integrity enhancement and reduction in cost of cultivation. This change in

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approach has given our programme unprecedented acceptance and the income growth has made risk - averse farmers open to changes and new package of practices which go a long way in sustaining the entire value chain.

A dedicated team of enthusiastic

scientists, engineers and agronomists work towards improving sustainable livelihood of farmers in all its grow-ing regions.ITC Spices programme covers 8000 Ha of crop and touches the lives of 4000 farmers. Our initia-tives improve farmer profitability through yield enhancement, cost of cultivation reduction and improve-ment in quality of produce and do not majorly impact the price to final consumer. For instance, a customized farmer format seedling production system not only saves water due to less irrigation& reduces labour drudg-ery but also increases farmer profit-ability through yield increase, cost of cultivation reduction and quality improvement. Unique dissemination

model improves community engage-ment thereby building a relation

beyond a procurer, as a company, with the farming community. ITC’s sustainability programme has been certified by Rainforest Alliance for our spices growing region. The Rain-forest Alliance Certified seal means that farmers follow more sustainable agricultural practices and have better livelihoods.

Sustainability at farm must not be mistaken as an initiative to only serve society with no tangible business impact. At ITC we believe that syn-ergy between farmer and long-term business interest is crucial for the

sustainability of any initiative aimed to bolster economic, environment and social capital. For instance it has been observed that areas with backward in-tegration programme have increased farmer loyalty yielding in competitive advantage at farm during procure-ment. We have seen not only im-provement in volume share but also increase in integrity of produce due to better adherence to recommended practices. We believe embedding sus-tainability is a competitive advantage and has far-reaching benefits to both the farmer and the customer.

We believe that sustainability in true sense needs a lot of effort, money and more importantly passion and at ITC we have our heads, hands and hearts in sustainability!

Sustainability at farm must not be mistaken as an initiative to only serve

society with no tangible business impact. At ITC we believe that syn-ergy between farmer and long-term business interest is crucial for the

sustainability of any initiative aimed to bolster economic, environment and

social capital.

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Spice Industry Transformation through Automation – A Nichrome Initiative

The fame of Indian spices is older than the recorded history. The story of Indian spices is more than 7000 years old. The rest of world has always been fond of traditional Indian spices. India exported about 524,690 tones of spices during last year. Estimates by the Ministry of Commerce showed, indicating exports in the financial year ended March 31 were likely much higher than the previous year. However, even today the traditional business of Spices is mostly handled manually. All the process such as ma-terial feeding, grinding and packing were done manually. While the global FDA norms are becoming more strict Indian spices industry is in a need of adopting modern-ultramodern technology.

Nichrome a leading packaging ma-chinery manufacturer and the pioneer in form fill seal machines in India has executed a unique automation project for traditional Indian spice industry. Nichrome used its wide experience of powder conveying and mate-rial handling systems to provide the automation solution in Spice process-ing, packaging and post-packaging sections. With the help of its ad-vanced and fully integrated packaging technology and automation know-how developed exclusively for Spice business Nichrome aims at changing the face of Indian spice industry.

Commenting on the changing sce-nario of Indian spice industry, Mrs Mrunal Joshi, Executive Director of Nichrome India Ltd says, “As the spice industry is looking at wider horizons- like export, they have to adhere to the HACCP norms where manual handling in food processing is minimal and hygiene is of prime importance. This reflects in the qual-ity of the product. The automation of processing plant also enables reduc-tion in product wastage , labor depen-dency, floor space optimization that leads to increase in through put. To market your brand for exports or at modern retail chains, such complete automation and integration of pre and post packaging processes is of utmost importance. Nichrome is ready with such a fully integrated packaging solution that is going to help the spice industry successfully maintain and increase exports and win the shelf space in domestic retail chains .”

Nichrome has successfully sup-plied and commissioned a complete integration plant at J.D. Marketing in Bengaluru for the capacity 10 tons per day, in 2012 and now a second such plant is under production. J. D. Marketing is a 100 year old Kolkata based company with a strong regional brand of spices known as ‘Cookme’. This solution is for handling of raw

material up to post packaging system for spice powders like turmeric, coriander, cumin, Chilly. Raw spices like whole Chilly, coriander & cumin seeds are crushed in to fine powders and conveyed to VFFS packing machines.

The total solution comprises of han-dling of raw material, packaging and post packaging system solution for basic or blend of spices.

Mrunal Joshi concludes saying, “The Indian spice production and quality is world renowned and the thrust should now be on packaging, branding and marketing initiatives to enable the spice growers and producers to com-mand better prices, get more margins and tap the wide global horizon.”

Way to Go!

Nichrome India [email protected]: +91-20-66011001www.nichrome.com

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US Actions and Local Events may Increase Volatility in Emerging Markets in 2014 S Venkatraman, Sr. Analyst, CommodityIndia

Indian rupee (INR) depreciated rapidly in 2013 and in the process reached an all time low of 68.93 against the US dollar (USD) on August 28th. In 2013, INR was highly volatile depreciating by 16.87 percent to end the year at 61.80 against USD.

In 2013, most of the emerging market currencies too declined sharply along with that of INR on conern over the prospect of im-minent tapering of US Feder al reserve’s quantitiative easing pro-gramme. However, INR fared much worse than other emerging market currencies on India’s twin deficit’s viz., current account deficit (CAD) and fiscal deficit.

The following is a detailed analysis of the steps taken by the govern-ment of India to control the twin deficits, the role of RBI in terms of curbing excess volatity in the forex market and measures to withstand US FED tapering, its views on economy,inflation and interest rates.

The article also analyses in detail India’s trade balance, Government policies to improve GDP growth, and

the efforts to control inflation and to balance the growth. A crystal gaze into the possible direction of INR for the rest of 2014 has been attempted in the end.

India’sCurrentaccountdeficittodecline to 2.5% in 2013-14 from 4.8% in 2012-13 In the last three years, India’s Cur-rent account deficit (CAD) was well above the RBI’s stated comfort zone of 2.5% of the GDP. India’s CAD, af-ter hitting a historic high of 6.7% cent of GDP in Q3 of 2012-13, improved remarkably and ended the financial year 2012-13 at a record high of 4.8 percent of GDP. Steps taken by government of India to curb imports

of non-essential items especially Gold to rein in the CAD from spirailing out of control yielded the desired results. The current account deficit fell to 1.2% of gross domestic product in the July-September quarter of the current fiscal (2013-14), the lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2010-11. For the period April-December 2013, the trade deficit has shrunk by 25% from its level a year ago, with merchandise exports increasing on a y-o-y basis for the sixth consecutive month in December, while non-oil imports have continued to decline. Accordingly, the current account defi-cit (CAD) for 2013-14 is expected to be below 2.5% of GDP as compared with 4.8% in 2012-13.

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GDP growth in China and India slowsOn the growth front, global economic recovery is gaining momentum, led by strengthening of US economy, uneven in Euro zone countries and Japan, and a slowdown in China based on the recent data on HSBC-Markit “flash” purchasing managers’ index of Chinese manufacturing activity. It slipped to a six-month low of 49.6 in January 2014 from 50.5 – below the 50 level indicates contraction. China’s year-on-year GDP growth had slowed to 7.7% in the fourth quarter of 2013. US QE tapering could put a brake in acceleration of growth going forward.

In India, growth is likely to be down slightly in Q3 of 2013-14 despite strong pick up in rabi sowing. Industrial activity has not picked up, mainly due to slow down in manufacturing, while service sector paints a mixed picture. However, growth in Agriculture and improved performance may lead to higher growth in the second half of 2013-14. Overall GDP growth in 2013-14 is forecasted below 5%.

Expenditure growth has been higher than the revenue growth during April-November 2013. However, the gov-ernment of India has reiterated its commitment to meeting the fiscal deficit within the budgetary target of 4.8% of GDP in 2013-14. This may require further cutback in ex-penditures, such as curtailing down the existing subsidies on Diesel, cooking gas etc., if the revenue and non-debt capital receipts do not meet budgetary targets.

Tradedeficitdeclinesby25%India’s trade deficit for 2013-14 as of December narrowed to US$ 110.05 bn, when compared to US$ 146.83 bn during the same period last year. In the first nine months of the current financial year, the trade deficit declined by 25%. Trade balance narrowed mainly due to decline in Gold and Silver imports. The government of India last year has hiked the import duty on gold, silver and Plati-num three times from 4% in Janauary to 10% each in Au-gust. In addition to that it had imposed a requirement that 20% of imported gold must be fabricated and exported. This has helped in moderating bullion imports since July 2013 as well as rein the spiraling current account deficit.

Exports so far have registered a growth of 5.94% when

compared with that of the same last year and have played major role in increasing overall growth. Exports for the whole of 2013-14 is estimated at new record in excess of US$310 bn, surpassing the previous record of US$305.89 bn registered in 2011-12.

Source: Ministry of CommerceNote * as on December-2013.Capital flows on the ascendence

US$ billionMonthly Average

2012-13 2013-14Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3

FDI in India 2.0 3.2 1.4 2.4 2.2 2.5 1.6FDI by India 0.7 0.5 0.7 0.5 0.0 0.2 -0.2FIIs -0.6 2.6 3.3 3.8 -0.2 -2.2 0.8ADRs/GDRs

0.03 0.03 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

ECB 0.1 0.4 1.0 1.4 0.1 1.4 1.8#NRI 2.2 0.9 0.9 0.9 1.8 2.7 9.7

Source: RBI, # refers to estimate (Oct-Dec-2013).

Note: Data for Q3 pertain to Oct-Nov 2013 only expect for FII and ECB

NRI deposits increased significantly aftermath of RBI’s measures in September 2013, in which it had offered a window for banks to swap the fresh FCNR(B) dollar funds with the central bank and increase their overseas borrowing limit from 50 to 100 percent of the Tier-I capi-tal of banks.

FIIs inflows in Q3 of 2013-14 averaged US$0.8 bn on a monthly basis, reversed its previous two quarters of negative trend. Since end-August 2013, India’s foreign exchange reserves had surged by US$ 16.6 billion to US$ 292.1 billion as on January 17,2014. However it was more

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less same when compared with 29th March-2013 foreign exchange reserves of US$ 292.65 billion.

InflationThe Reserve Bank of India in its recent monetary policy meeting has hiked the repo rate to 8% from existing 7.75%. This is third such hike since September last year, when Raghuram Rajan was appointed as RBI Governor. The RBI said that another near-term hike was unlikely if inflation eased to a more comfortable level.

In last December India’s WPI inflation rate slipped to five month low of 6.16% as against 7.52% registered in No-vember as food itmes began to ease. Moreover, consumer price index– CPI also eased to three month low of 9.87% in December from record 11.16% reported in November due to ease in vegetable prices.

Decline in growth well below 5% in the last few quarters and CPI yearly inflation in double digit in the last two years, strained household budgets and scaled down the purchasing power of consumers. This has resulted in a dent in corporate balance sheet coupled with raising inter-est rates over the years.

The RBI governor insisted that the best way for India to create growth and to sustain over the medium term is to bring the inflation down. The RBI in the later part of Janu-ary had proposed setting a target of 4% consumer inflation by 2016.

Government policy initiativesThe government of India in the last few quarters has passed key reform bills and expedited mega projects in power, railway, coal, roads and in petroleum sectors. Mechanism for speedy clearance on environmental issues

to revive confidence in the minds of investors, after it was accused of delay in clearing major projects.

Series of measures taken by the government to control gold imports and to rein the current account deficit spiral-ing out of control yielded desired results in the last two quarters.

Last year October, the long-pending Pension Bill, a key economic legislation assuring minimum returns to sub-scribers was passed in the parliament. The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Bill, 2011, provides for market based returns.

The government is also taking initiatives to revive the telecom sector. These include introduction of the National Telecom Policy 2012, simplifying the licensing regime, improving availability of spectrum and its allocation and raising the limit on foreign direct investment (FDI) from 74 percent to 100 percent.

INR likely to trade between 60 and 66 to a USD in 2014INR since mid-september 2013 continued to trade within the broader range of 63.96 and 60.94 against USD and the volatility has been reduced substantially. Currently as on Jan-30th, INR is trading at 62.80 against USD.

The US Fed as expected tapered its bond buying pro-gramme for the second time in as many months by another $10 bn to $65 bn, beginning February, in its recently con-cluded meeting. The RBI as well as Ministry of Finance reiterated that Indian economy is better prepared for the consequences, if any, arising out of the FED decision and there should be no undue concern over external factors.

INR is likely to trade in the broader region of 60 and 66 against USD in the coming one to two quarters (Valid upto June-2014).

Other than external factors such as FED tapering, possible slow down in Chinese and Euro zone growth momentum in the first half of 2014, the biggest game changer for INR would be the general election results in india in May 2014. The mandate will be closely watched by investors across the world in assessing whether the new government will be able to take crucial and speedy economic decisions in order to put the Indian economy on the right track.

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Brazilian RealBrazilian real (BRL) as on Jan-29th once again touched 2.45 against USD, just below the last year August record low of 2.55, as US FED continued with its stimulus taper-ing and reduced bond purchases to $65 billion per month. In 2013, the BRL depreciated by 13 percent, the worst decline since 2008.

Brazil GDP in the third quarter of 2013 contracted by 0.5% (Q-o-Q)for the first time in the last two years. This is despite surge in government spending, which failed to offset the slowdown in exports and investment. The GDP contracted Q-o-Q due to rapid decline in agricul-ture growth (-3.5%), followed by manufacturing sector (-0.4%) and construction(-0.3%). In contrast, mining advanced 2.9% and production of water, gas and electric-ity rose 0.9%.

Brazil posted a trade surplus of USD 2.56 billion in 2013, the lowest since 2001, a sharp fall from USD 19.4 billion recorded in 2012. In 2013, imports rose 6.5% to $240 bil-lion, and exports dropped 1% to $242 billion.

Brazil inflation witnessed highest monthly increase in last 10 years in December-2013 due to higher transport and health prices. In December-2013, Brazilian annual inflation rate rose 5.91%, up from 5.77% in November and 5.84% a year earlier. On a monthly basis, the inflation rate accelerated to 0.92%, the highest rate in more than 10-years.

The Brazilian central bank on January 15th of this year has raised the interest rates by 50 bps to 10.5%, the sev-enth consecutive rate hike since April last year, aimed at curbing inflation.

Source:bcb.gov.br

BRL in 2014 expected to trade between 2 and 2.7 to USDBRL as on Jan 30th, traded close to last August record weakness of 2.45 against the dollar. In the weekly techni-cal chart real is facing resistance around 2.4550 and in case breach of that levels for two consecutive weeks on closing basis is likely to signal further depreciation of real towards 2.60 and 2.70 against the dollar. On the lower side real may found support in the region of 2.1 and 2.0 and unlikely to gain further. Overall real may trade in the broader region of 2 and 2.70 against the dollar in 2014.

Indonesian Rupiah (IDR): Expect 8 – 10% apprecia-tion in next 6 monthsIndonesian Rupiah (IDR) declined rapidly since March-2013. In 2013, IDR depreciated 26.50% against the US dollar (USD) by. It is an effect of Fed Chairman Ben Ber-nanke’s announcement of possible end of US’ bond-buy-ing programme late May-2013. This speculation triggered massive capital outflows from Indonesia’s capital markets as international investors started to anticipate the tapering. Currency has also depreciated on various other factors such as slowdown in Indonesian economic growth, accel-eration in inflation, which has prompted Bank of Indone-sia to raise the bench mark interest rates from 5.75% to 7.50% during the period June and November-2013. Raise in fuel prices to cut the subsidies has resulted in inflation nearly doubling to 8.4% in 2013 as against 4.3% in 2012.

Indonesian current account declined rapidly over the years from surplus of 3% of the GDP in 2006 to an estimated

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deficit of 3.5% of the GDP in 2013. In Q3 of 2013, current account deficit recorded 3.8% of the GDP, vastly im-proved from the record deficit of 4.4% of the GDP in Q2 of 2013.

Indonesia FDI (US$ billion)2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Inflows 9.3 4.9 13.8 19.2 19.9Outflows 5.9 2.2 2.7 7.7 5.4Source:OECD

In 2014, Indonesian GDP is projected to grow in the region of 5.8% and 6.2%. Improvement in the current account deficit in the second half of 2013, may augur well for further trimming down of the CAD going forward in 2014. With the presidential elections slated in June this year, prices of fuel are unlikely to be raised substantially and hence the inflation is expected to remain in control this year.

However, higher interest rates may impact the credit growth in the coming quarters and may hamper the growth in 2014.

IDR failed to sustain above 12,200 against the USD for the second time since third week of last December, may result in further appreciation in the currency in the coming months. This is valid as long as it does not violate the record low of 12,240 on weekly closing. Expect IDR to appreciate further in the coming months and may retest the supports of 11,300 and 11,000.

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Trends in Spice, Oleoresin & Essential OilsVinayaraj K S, Specialist, Synthite Industries ltd

Introduction:- India is a revered as home to spices in world as it produces more than 70% of different spices produced in the World . India is bestowed with wide vari-ety of climate which endows it to become spices capital. Till 1970 India had dominated the world spice trade. Even now India still continues to be the largest producer, consumer, and exporter of spices in the world. During the crop year 2011-12 the country produced about 5350.47 thousand tons from 2940.39 thousand hectares of area under spices. Out of which 10% is exported annually.

Many of the spices produced in India is distinctly superior in terms of colour, taste, fragrance & chemical content owing to its Intrinsic value, which may be attributed to

wide variety of Agro-climatic & genetic diversity of the crop . To name a few spices due to its intrinsic quality have been awarded geographical indicators are Malabar pepper, Alleppey Green Cardamom, Coorg GreenCardamom, Byadagi Dabbi & Kaddi chilli and Naga chilli.

Value addition in spices:-Since 1970 onwards there is a revolution in Spice Industry by setting up of many Value addition Industries. Majorly based out of Kerala, the following are the value added products being produced by these Industries.

Spice Powders, Flakes, Brine preserved Spices, Oleoresin, Nutraceutical extracts of Active Ingredients of Spices, Encapsulated spices, spray dried spice products, Aromatic extracts & oils, Steam distilled products , Volatile oils etc.The Total Industry size of Oleoresin & oils is expected to 8670 Tons valuing more than Rs. 1312 crores rupees. Spices derivatives such as encapsulated spices; oils and oleoresin are becoming significant in view of their conve-nience. With the reported use of spices oils and oleoresins in soft drinks, food and medicines, the demand for Indian spice oils and oleoresins is bound to shoot up.

Segmentation in the Industry:-Oleoresins & essential oils:- There are majorly two seg-ments in Oleoresins & essential oils

Spices & other Natural products oleoresin.• Mint oil & its byproducts.•

And among spices the following are the segments1) Domestic spice producers 2) Spice Export houses.

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Among the Spice exports, the major segments are Whole spices, Ground spices & Crushed products & value added products like Pickles, Curry pastes & powders.

Major Players in the Industry:-As Kerala is the major spice trading hub since ages. Ma-jority of the spice business in concentrated in Kerala.

The following are the Major players in respective Indus-tries:-

Oleoresins:- Synthite Industries Ltd, Plant lipids, Paprika colors, Kancor, Katra Phyto Chem, AVT Naturals, VPSA & Co, Olam Industries Ltd etcSpice Powders:- ITC, Synthite Industries Ltd , Indian Products ltd, AVT McCormick, Ned Spices, Swani & Co, AB Mauri, MDH, Shakti Masalas, Aachi Masalas, Ever-est, Eastern etc.

Spice Scenario:-Spices are high value and low volume commodities of commerce in the world market. All over the world, the fast growing food industry depends largely on spices as tasteand flavour makers. Health conscious consumers in devel-oped countries prefer natural colours and flavours of plant origin to cheap synthetic ones. Thus, spices are the basicbuilding blocks of flavour in food preparations. The estimated growth rate for spices demand in the world is around 3.19%, which is just above the population growth rate.

In India almost all States in the country produce one or other spices. Of the total production,Nearly 10% was exported. Share of export in total produc-tion varied from a mere 0.2% in large cardamom to about 42% in chili. During the 2012-13, a total of 699,170 tons of spices and spice products valued Rs.11,171.16 crores has been exported from the country as against 5,75,270 tons valued Rs.9,783.42 crores in 2011-12, registering an increase of 22% in volume and 14% in rupee terms of value. During the last three decades the production has become nearly three times due to area expansion and higher productivity. Area and production of total spices

have increased by 46.8% and 182.4% respectively from 1991-92 to 2010-11.

Value added spices Export:-Value added products including spice oils and oleoresins, mint products, curry powder/ paste/ condiments and spice powders contributed around 58% in value towards the to-tal export earnings by spices from India. During 2012-13, 19,000 t of curry powder blends valued at Rs. 298.3 crores has been exported to UK, Saudi, UAE and USA & other countries. Export of spice oils and oleoresins has recorded an all time high of 8,670 t valued at Rs. 1313 crores in 2012-13. Major spice oils exported are pepper oil, nutmeg oil,mustard seed oil, clove oil, celery seed oil and ginger oil and in case of oleoresins, Capsicum oleoresin followed by paparika, pepper, garcinia and turmeric oleoresins areexported. USA is the major importer of spice extracts followed by Germany, UK, South Korea and China. Mint products account for 21% of the total spice export mainly to USA, China, Singapore, Germany, UK, Netherlands and Brazil.

India exports its spices to more than 120 countries in the world. But, some countries are important importers for Indian spices as they import bulk of the our spices. Fromthe region-wise export data for various periods, it can be seen that the Asian zone is fast emerging as the major destination for Indian spices with 66% in quantity and 48% in value followed by American zone and European Union countries.

The USA, Canada, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Ku-wait, Bahrain and Israel are the main markets for Indian spices. North America (USA and Canada) and Western Europe are the most important regions having the import demand for many of the spices. Mexico continues to be the major importer of cinnamon and cassia while Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Israel are the major markets for green cardamom, black pepper, ginger and turmeric.

ChallengesThe productivity level in India in most of the spices except in few spices like High Heat chilly is very low compared to other countries. But even the data collection

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is not based on scientific methods. Many competing coun-tries are in the spices trade with the opening of interna-tional market. A major effort is needed to bridge this gap in productivity. In India, even the gap between nationalaverage and the realizable yield is very wide. In pepper, it is around 2,445 kg/ ha, in cardamom 1,625 kg/ha (national average is 290 kg/ha and 120 kg/ha respectively). If there is no serious & honest efforts put by all the stake holders of the value chain like Government agencies, research institutes, Processing & Export houses & Farmers, the Glory of Indian domination in spice Trade will become a memory of past . A living example for this threat is Paprika oleoresins. Byadagi Kaddi & Dabbi produced in Karnataka has got GI indication & was one of the sought over Raw Material for Paparika oleoresin production. As there was no serious varietal improvements & Hybridization of the crop & Low adoption of new Technologies like Fertigation & better crop production technologies, today the Raw Material available in India is not competitive for Oleoresin produc-tion. So the Paparika oleoresin production has moved to China , where superior Paparika is available at almost half the price available in India.

The major risk factor faced by spice Industry isEmergence and epidemics of pests and diseases• Resistance developed by pests & diseases for new • generation molecules.Increase in leased cultivation in Chilly, Ginger & • Turmeric spice production. The leased farmer has very less access to organized finance & other facilities from Government.Degradation of soil & environment posing greater • challenge like emergence of new pest like root grub, Flower midge, quick wilt etc & increased investments on fertilizers, pesticides causing low profit realization to farmers. Vagaries of monsoon resulting in drought• Very Poor extension service given to farmer on ad-• vanced farming Technologies Emergence of other major spice producing countries • which compete with Indiain the International market.•

Shifting of interests of growers to more profitable/less • risky crops.Adulteration of spices• Cyclic market fluctuations at international and na-• tional level which causes huge financial burden for the high investments done by spice farmers especially chilly & Ginger Farmers.Lack of awareness about pesticide residues and • mycotoxin contaminants in the Products and lack of MRL and ADI standards in some of the pesticides used in spices.

The Way Forward:-A serious & honest effort in addressing the practical challenges is the need of the hour. The following are few important areas which we have to address for sustained growth of Spice Industry in India like implementation of new technologies & low cost technologies like Fer-tigation, disease free planting material, Stress on clean spice production at affordable cost, affordable financing for Farmers, Insuring the spice farmers against vagaries of Nature & Market, Transparent buying mechanism, stopping adulteration of spices, Research on Value added spices

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Spice Up Your Investment Portfolio with NCDEX

Spices, high value and low volume commodities, have al-ways assumed important position in world trade and com-merce. Since centuries India is recognised as ‘spice bowl’ of the world for growing and exporting spices that are distinctly superior in terms of taste, colour and fragrance. Spices have played a crucial role in harnessing export potential of India helping it fetch valuable foreign ex-change since past several years. However, Indian spice industry, off late, is facing a number of challenges, such as deteriorating productivity, increased labour cost, changes in dietary preferences, stricter quality and safety norms and stiff competition. Further, a major comes from other producer countries which are experiencing higher produc-tivity levels and rising exportable surplus. Timely tackling of these issues is crucial given their short and long-run implications on the volume of trade, domestic produc-tion, prices and export revenues. This is especially true in case of their impact on prices. Fluctuations in prices often lead to inefficiency and adversely affect the returns and efficient allocation of resources for spice growers and processors.

Majority spice growers in India belong to marginal and small categories, whereas spice processors belong to unorganised sector, which, generally have low propensity to save and poor access to efficient saving instruments. Hence, a system that not only safeguards them from price fluctuations but also assures them remunerative prices is needed. NCDEX by providing an electronic platform for trading in spices futures has served this purpose success-fully over the last decade.

ListOfSpicesNotifiedUnderSection 15 Of The F.C.(R.) Act

Aniseed Coriander seedBetelnuts GingerCardamom Methi

Chillies NutmegsCinnamon PepperCloves Turmeric

In India, at present, 12 out of 103 commodities, in which futures trading is permitted, belong to spices category. NCDEX offers futures contracts in five major spices, viz., Red Chilli, Coriander, Jeera, Pepper and Turmeric. Trading in spices futures has always seen huge turnover in terms of volume as well as value since the introduction of the first spice futures contract on the exchange platform in the year 2004.

The performance of these contracts illustrates the success of efficient price discovery in the Indian domestic market through derivatives trading. Albeit the fact is that no other futures contracts of spices are actively traded on any of the leading international exchanges.

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Since its introduction, the spices’ futures contracts have witnessed considerable participation from various value chain players including farmers, processors, exporters and traders. Consistent deposits of spices on the exchange ac-credited warehouses have provided arbitrage opportunities in this contract. Being highly liquid, the contracts have facilitated easy entry and exit of the speculators. Thus, spices futures have provided space for every investor cat-egory, in turn, attracting wide range of market participants and ensuring genuine, competent price discovery. Over the years, spices’ futures have successfully been validated as a price benchmark in domestic as well as international market.

The Exchange has always strived to provide best trading experience to market participants and to this extent it has laid down clear and unambiguous quality specifications under ‘contract specifications’ for all contracts traded on the Exchange. The testing of the commodities traded on the Exchange platform is also confined to the quality parameters as per contract specifications.

Being the leading agricultural commodity exchange in the country, NCDEX has always attempted to strengthen the links between physical and futures markets; staggered delivery mechanism being one of the latest steps in this di-rection. The Exchange has introduced a staggered delivery mechanism beginning June 2012 for all its ‘compulsory delivery’ contracts. This has eased delivery pressures to-wards the expiry of the contract and has facilitated conver-gence in futures and underlying physical markets. In order

to make the trading smoother and faster, the Exchange has introduced a new trading facility – Limit Spread Order type – which facilitates trading in Calendar Spreads using spread day orders. In this case, a spice trader can simulta-neously enter into opposite positions of different calendar months of his desired spice. This not only helps him use his margin effectively but also lowers his risk exposure and saves his time of analysing tick-movement in price. It is indeed encouraging to see that the system has received a good response from the industry players and has led to higher quantities being delivered at the Exchange plat-form.

NCDEX is the first exchange to facilitate holding and transfers of commodities balances in an electronic form. It has launched a user-friendly web-based commodity accounting system, COMTRACK®, which has facilitated the depositors to trace their stocks in the clearing and settlement network through seamless linkages between entities involved in the process.

In a nutshell, the NCDEX futures trading platform, by providing transparent price discovery and efficient risk management system, real-time dissemination of prices, and robust delivery mechanism has provided the value chain participants with more holding capacity and ad-ditional bargaining power. We hope this would provide impetus for development and cultivation of spices of inter-national standards leading to sustainable growth of spice industry and in turn consolidating India’s position as the largest producer and exporter of spices in the world.

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Spice Seasoning and its Growth AspectsRekha D, Griffith Laboratories

Demand for spices and herbs is grow-ing due to increased consumer consump-tion, usage in the manufacture of various flavors and flavor ingredients, as well as increase in demand for ethnic foods, in developed world. The United States represents the largest market for spices seasonings worldwide. Con-sumption in the US is increasing rapidly as more and more spices such as Thai, Indian, Mexican, and Korean

dishes are increasingly becoming popular with American consumers. Europe constitutes the second largest mar-ket for spices and seasonings worldwide. Asia-Pacific is projected to emerge as the fastest growing market for spices seasonings worldwide. The spices and herbs market is broadly divided into Catering, Industrial, and Retail. Industrial market is the largest user of spices and herbs in which food processing and meat industry constitute the major users.

India is the world’s largest producer and exporter of spices. With plantations spreading over 3 million hect-

ares across the length and breadth of the country, India exports around 180 kinds of spices to nearly 150 countries worldwide. India is shifting from being merely a sup-plier of bulk spice commodity to being an exporter of the processed and finished product. Already possessing the required raw materials, technological expertise, and infra-structural facility for daily extracting, grinding, and steril-izing of several thousand tons of spices, India is slated to emerge as a major processing center for spices and flavors in the near future.

India is the largest producer and exporter of various spices. India's estimated spices production stood at 5.9 million tonnes (Mt) in 2012-13, while imports of 0.1 Mt were recorded,

"The demand for Spice seasonings has led many play-ers to focus on research and technology to manufacture innovative products. Revenue realizations on exports of value-added products have been quite high. India has now started to face the heat from Vietnam as it is now emerg-ing as a new spices exporting hub, but so far India still continues to remain the global leader.

The growing interest towards the use of fast food is fast catching up. Many Ready to Eat (RTE) food items have made entry into retail outlets worldwide. There, are many Special seasonings which are very famous across the world i.e. Chattinad Spices, Ghoda Masala, Laksa, Molag-pudi, Biryani Masala, Etc. However, the mainstream retail market for RTE foods with different spicy flavors is still in a nascent stage. Reduced prices and increased supply could offer significant growth prospects for RTE foods,

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which are expected to build up market share comparable to other food items.

Spice seasoning market has not been severely affected by economic conditions. In fact, many categories of spices are considered recession-proof or counter-cyclical because the sales tend to rise in a sluggish economy. In a tardy economy, at-home consumption of food generally rises, with people trying to save money by avoiding costlier trips to restaurants, and cutting down on the consumption of ready meals. Europe and some Asian countries continue to be the global centers for the production and processing of spices and culinary herbs. Some countries lead in the production of specific spices, such as India for Chillys, China for ginger, Vietnam for pepper, and Indonesia for nutmeg and cinnamon. In the culinary herbs market, India is among the leading producers and exporters of raw herbs to the US, and European Union. Spices and its derivative products are used in food preservation, food flavoring, aromatherapy, beverages, personal hygiene products, industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and feeds.

The global market for Spice Seasonings is forecast to reach 4687.86 Million Pounds by the year 2015. Growing demand for convenience foods and fascination for ethnic cuisine, introduction of new spices and flavors, public-ity with regards to the health benefits of various types of spices, are the key factors fuelling the sales of Spice seasonings. The growth in the Asia-Pacific market is rid-ing on the developing spice Seasonings markets in India, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, which were traditionally exporting more than their internal consump-tion. India is one of the largest manufacturer and exporter of seasonings and spices.

The Spice Seasoning market in India has seen an increase in volumes, owing to the huge global demand for Spice seasonings, primarily from the UAE, the US, the Euro-pean Union and the Asia-Pacific.

Though the sector hasn't seen new players, as the initial investment is very high, many existing companies have ramped up capacities to meet the growing demand, both in the domestic, as well as the export market. But, there are

many challenges were there to attend to cater the demand.

Major ChallengesLow productivity leading high costs in the Spice sea-• sonings sector is one of the serious problems facing the Indian Spice seasoning industry. Poor product quality at farm level is another problem • hindering reasonable price realization by the pro-ducer. Cost Driven Factors • Quality Spices to make product which will meet • International StandardsPoor Quality Management Systems•

Conclusion: The demand for spice seasoning and its products are ever increasing in both the internal and external markets. India has a worldwide reputation as the only country which produces almost all kinds of spices and it is through these spices exports the country earns the much needed foreign exchange over a long period of time. India is the largest producer as well as the consumer of the spices in the world. Several kinds of spices are grown in India since time immemorial, it is because of this country is known to the world as "The Home of Spices". Although there is tremendous importance of spices, it is rather unfortunate that the sector has not achieved the required level development because of the problems in the market-ing, supply chain, exports, Lack or Processing technol-ogy. Also exporters overseas are struggling. This requires costly quality management systems. A targeted effort is needed to include organizational development, technical upgrading, management skills and access to financing are all required.

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Organic Certification of Spices for Value AdditionBobby Issac, Director

Lacon Quality Certification Pvt. Ltd

Organic agriculture has been gaining lots of mo-mentum in the recent years. The market for organic products has also increased as more consumers engage in organic products purchas-es. More and more consum-ers are becoming aware of safety in food. Consumers prefer to buy foods that are free from pesticide residues and harmful chemicals. The need for certified organic products have increased many folds as it is required

to establish the trust between the consumers and the farmers who are separated by a distance. Certified organic products are grown in most effective environment friendly way and are verified and confirmed as per the various na-tional and international standards. Dependence on external inputs for manuring, pest, disease and weed control are minimized or even excluded. Thus the cost of cultivation is minimized and the resultant products are nutritionally rich and have better keeping quality.

Organic certification addresses a growing worldwide demand for organic food. It is intended to assure quality and prevent fraud, and to promote sustainable business. While such certification was not necessary in the early days of the organic movement, when small farmers would sell their produce directly at farmers' markets. As organic products have gained popularity, more and more consum-ers are purchasing organic food through traditional chan-nels, such as supermarkets. Hence the consumers start relying on third-party regulatory certification.

Organic certification is a third party verification check and confirm the compliance level of the farm or the chain of activities involved in the production processing and trade with the respective organic standards. Any chain of activ-ity directly involved in organic food production can be certified, including agricultural production of individual farms or group of farms, processing that involves change in form of the product by blending, mixing, packing, labeling etc. The trader also needs to be certified under the scope “Trading” as per the regulatory requirement. The wild collected products can also be certified under Organic wild collection scope. The Organic certification efforts of small holder groups helped the small farmers es-pecially in India, to participate in the organic certification and this has impacted upon the livelihoods of producers, and on the environment. Third party certification of small farmers is based on effective functioning of the inter-nal control system (ICS) which is a similar verification system practiced internally by the group members. ICS help individual small farmers to interact and invoke group dynamics. Thus the group can build on their strength and opportunities for collective marketing and gain better price. The Certification body LACON builds the trust to develop and broaden the external links with major buyers and or exporters. An efficient supply chain transforming raw products to value added products will surely increase the income of farmers. Richness of biodiversity in organic field will also contribute in enhancing the livelihood of members in the group. Organic certification thus helps individual small farmers to empower themselves to adopt strategies to secure their livelihood. LACON can be a catalyst for the holistic development of the ICS.

Certification is essentially aimed at regulating and facili-tating the sale of organic products to consumers. Individ-ual certification bodies have their own trade mark, which

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can act as branding to consumers—being a reputed Ger-man brand, LACON’s logo has high consumer recognition value and gives a marketing advantage to the farmers.

To certify a farm, the farmer is typically required to en-gage in a number of new activities, in addition to normal farming operations:

Understand the organic standards (National and • International), which specifically covers the details of what is and is not allowed for every aspect of farm-ing, including storage, transport and sale.Compliance- farm facilities and production methods • must comply with the standards, which may involve modifying facilities, sourcing and changing suppliers, etc.Documentation- paperwork is required, detailing farm • operations from seed procurement to final sales, Land details with survey no and GPS coordinates, history of the land etc -a written annual production plan (Organic system • Plan) must be submitted, detailing everything from seed to sales: seed sources, field and crop locations, fertilization and pest control activities, harvest meth-ods, storage locations, sales etc.Inspection- annual on-farm inspections are required, • with a physical tour, examination of records, and an oral interview.Fee- an annual inspection/certification fee • Record-keeping-written, day-to-day farming and • marketing records, covering all activities, must be available for inspection at any time. Stock register, Purchase and Sales registers etc must be maintained for traceability.

In addition, short-notice or surprise inspections can be made, and specific tests (e.g. soil, water, plant tissue) may be requested.

For first-time farm certification, the soil must meet basic requirements of being free from use of prohibited sub-stances (synthetic chemicals, etc.) for a number of years. A conventional farm must adhere to organic standards for this period, often two to three years. This is known as being “in conversion”. Annual crops requires 2 years of conversion period, while perennial crops requires 3 years for attaining organic status from the start of conversion period.

Certification for operations other than farms (Processing & Trade) follows similar procedures. The focus is on the quality of ingredients, its organic status, processed methods etc with clear traceability on the product flow. Trade certification is required for operators who do only handling of finished products. Hence every chain of cus-tody is under the control and the products can be traced at any point of time.

Most of the spices in India are grown without intensive use of chemicals and hence the Organic certification can be done easily in spice grown areas. Moreover the demand for certified spices is increasing globally every year due to medicinal and flavoring value of spices. The growth in the cosmetic industry also contributed to the demand, due to the increasing use for wellness industry and nutrient supplements. Since keeping quality of the spices are ap-preciable, the handling of the same for trade and export is an added advantage.

In India, APEDA regulates the certification of organic products as per National Standards for Organic Produc-tion. “The NPOP standards for production and accredita-tion system have been recognized by European Com-mission and Switzerland as equivalent to their country standards. Similarly, USDA has recognized NPOP confor-mity assessment procedures of accreditation as equivalent to that of US. With these recognitions, Indian organic products duly certified by the accredited certification bodies of India are accepted by the importing countries. Organic food products manufactured and exported from India are marked with the India Organic certification mark issued by the APEDA.

An online database, TRACENET was developed and implemented by APEDA since 2010 for establishing traceability of the organic products in India. Now all the certificates are issued through this software by the certification bodies operating in India with Bar codes and Digital signature for authenticity and traceability. The product movement can be tracked and confirmed by issu-ing a document, known as Transaction Certificate which is also generated through this system.

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PEPPER NEITHER CRUSHED NOR GROUND EXPORT

Quantity (Tonnes) Values in US $ Million

2003-04 10366.43 20.672004-05 10496.54 20.082005-06 12705.8 24.112006-07 25408.47 55.612007-08 36464.58 104.692008-09 28292.94 80.052009-10 16158.17 43.12010-11 18533.32 66.722011-12 30678.88 162.892012-13 19885.46 83.97

BLACK PEPPER GARBLED IMPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-04 1553.13 2.272004-05 1499.98 2.192005-06 1781.87 2.562006-07 507.29 1.172007-08 525.9 2.032008-09 871.56 3.242009-10 2413.22 6.162010-11 2597.28 8.772011-12 2591.69 14.352012-13 4863.68 32.21

BLACK PEPPER UNGARBLED IMPORTQuantity(Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-04 2377.04 3.32004-05 2924.95 4.262005-06 7716.41 10.852006-07 5196.2 9.742007-08 4386.25 14.252008-09 2065.96 7.022009-10 4500.75 11.342010-11 2905 9.92011-12 1630.36 9.462012-13 1886 12.14

PEPPER NEITHER CRUSHED NOR GROUND IMPORT

Quantity (Tonnes) Values in US $ Million

2003-04 14583.98 21.782004-05 16312.64 23.292005-06 18856.61 26.032006-07 16896.99 31.672007-08 13279.15 45.572008-09 11566.34 40.92009-10 16747.7 43.522010-11 13132.04 45.192011-12 13802.44 81.092012-13 16861.41 109.26

PEPPER OLEORESINS EXPORT

Quantity (Tonnes) Values in US $ Million

2003-04 646.58 8.322004-05 408.03 4.822005-06 765.6 9.052006-07 1427 17.52007-08 1427 27.862008-09 1387.17 28.992009-10 1317.99 24.222010-11 1303.04 28.272011-12 1837.3 66.432012-13 1695.21 67.7

LIGHT BLACK PEPPER IMPORTQuantity(Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-04 1810.91 3.332004-05 2498.54 4.012005-06 4904.19 6.362006-07 8090.71 14.032007-08 6204.72 22.272008-09 6227.27 22.512009-10 7247.07 19.712010-11 5497.11 20.052011-12 7517.44 46.212012-13 8326.97 53.8

Spices Export and Import Data

Page | 93

CARDAMOM OLEORISINS EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 6.19 0.372004-2005 1.82 0.172005-2006 2.95 0.282006-2007 8.97 0.42007-2008 6.86 0.542008-2009 8.28 0.812009-2010 9.65 1.072010-2011 14.55 3.212011-2012 13.06 1.572012-2013 17.01 1.56

CARDAMOM POWDER EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 23.24 0.132004-2005 78.71 0.32005-2006 68.74 0.332006-2007 51.1 0.262007-2008 98.7 0.472008-2009 132.49 0.822009-2010 154.86 1.262010-2011 173.24 1.322011-2012 378.42 3.682012-2013 354.1 2.66

LARGE CARDAMOM EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 955.94 3.652004-2005 990.08 3.842005-2006 1120.07 3.352006-2007 1685.33 5.022007-2008 1551.14 4.912008-2009 1947.39 5.642009-2010 1214.45 8.282010-2011 1170.45 10.922011-2012 1902.74 17.922012-2013 1463.43 12.12

CARDAMOM SMALL ALLEPPEY GREEN EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 259.17 2.572004-2005 133.82 0.892005-2006 235.25 1.52006-2007 161.18 1.352007-2008 243.13 2.342008-2009 520.97 5.462009-2010 1304.64 22.992010-2011 883.92 19.912011-2012 4087.55 60.572012-2013 2485.07 37.99

COORG CARDAMOM SMALL EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 120.52 1.192004-2005 215.65 1.622005-2006 365.35 2.352006-2007 195.83 1.512007-2008 146.37 1.772008-2009 297.93 1.922009-2010 174.94 2.72010-2011 22.65 0.412011-2012 193.12 2.552012-2013 147.71 1.73

LARGE CARDAMOM IMPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 3940.21 9.062004-2005 4386.4 9.572005-2006 4928.27 9.092006-2007 235.21 0.342007-2008 7014.34 14.242008-2009 7988.98 15.22009-2010 4914.4 10.682010-2011 3599.64 22.692011-2012 3146.9 26.272012-2013 5106.2 37.56

Page | 94

CLOVE LEAF/STEM OIL EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 8.22 0.152004-2005 34.82 0.332005-2006 12.32 0.112006-2007 7.96 0.12007-2008 22.08 0.182008-2009 15.99 0.312009-2010 30.81 0.352010-2011 51.94 0.732011-2012 22.75 0.422012-2013 25.27 0.46

CLOVE, NOT EXTRACTED (OTHER THAN STEM) EXPORT

Quantity (Tonnes) Values in US $ Million

2003-2004 3.26 0.022004-2005 1.91 02005-2006 1.88 0.012006-2007 6.09 0.032007-2008 29.83 0.112008-2009 24.53 0.122009-2010 20.78 0.112010-2011 34.67 0.132011-2012 274.48 4.672012-2013 16.23 0.13

CLOVE, NOT EXTRACTED (OTHER THAN STEM) IMPORT

Quantity (Tonnes) Values in US $ Million

2003-2004 5125.5 10.142004-2005 2900.46 14.082005-2006 3907.4 15.962006-2007 5021.94 17.982007-2008 5243.32 20.252008-2009 3268.05 13.222009-2010 4798.61 20.582010-2011 2993.46 15.442011-2012 3206.77 242012-2013 2034.97 20.64

CORIANDER OF SEED QLTY EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 12314.21 8.92004-2005 21783.5 11.512005-2006 14492.31 8.752006-2007 12852.07 9.362007-2008 10011.66 9.52008-2009 6946.47 9.442009-2010 6501.99 6.422010-2011 4661.93 42011-2012 4727.6 4.992012-2013 6124.49 6.48

SEEDS OF CORIANDER EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 18344.22 13.012004-2005 31532.33 16.892005-2006 26398.73 16.032006-2007 27321.88 20.222007-2008 32690.45 31.322008-2009 36329.28 46.932009-2010 41440.4 38.432010-2011 39396.54 31.692011-2012 34859.44 35.362012-2013 41294.21 36.44

CORIANDER OF SEED QLTY IMPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 682.33 0.692004-2005 959.26 1.132005-2006 1476.85 1.532006-2007 2073.16 2.022007-2008 2077.98 3.382008-2009 5401.29 5.732009-2010 2485.86 4.682010-2011 2734.07 4.322011-2012 2881.21 4.42012-2013 4257.72 6.13

SEEDS OF CORIANDER IMPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 1049.81 0.922004-2005 1250.71 1.372005-2006 1974.86 2.042006-2007 2270.21 2.222007-2008 6509.54 4.472008-2009 9208.03 9.132009-2010 3504.86 5.582010-2011 3382.38 4.932011-2012 3748.96 5.312012-2013 4842.62 6.9

CUMIN OLEORESIN EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 6.28 0.152004-2005 4.65 0.062005-2006 23.89 0.82006-2007 22.68 0.62007-2008 16.91 0.342008-2009 20.11 0.482009-2010 20.4 0.482010-2011 30.7 0.962011-2012 40.34 1.032012-2013 43.83 1.93

CUMIN POWDER EXPORT Quantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 1277.34 1.662004-2005 1475.17 1.892005-2006 1640.74 2.582006-2007 2012.75 3.72007-2008 3383.28 6.132008-2009 3165.07 7.042009-2010 3553.08 7.92010-2011 4660.93 10.842011-2012 8695.23 22.592012-2013 8849.65 21.32

SEEDS OF CUMIN EXPORTSQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 6170.97 8.942004-2005 12400.86 18.752005-2006 13689.17 20.552006-2007 30092.48 49.232007-2008 44037.4 103.952008-2009 73242.96 164.222009-2010 41993.71 95.62010-2011 31430.02 81.112011-2012 60283.01 168.982012-2013 98071.2 236.41

SEEDS OF CUMIN IMPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 2599.23 3.222004-2005 1301.4 1.622005-2006 927.2 1.462006-2007 1190.51 2.252007-2008 3724.51 8.332008-2009 378.96 0.942009-2010 4820.86 10.852010-2011 595.88 1.552011-2012 647.29 1.742012-2013 129.26 0.31

GINGER EXPORT Quantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 4602.57 4.272004-2005 14908.13 13.22005-2006 10890.43 10.352006-2007 9661.34 10.552007-2008 8332.91 8.172008-2009 8836.25 11.062009-2010 12174.91 14.72010-2011 24630.1 35.852011-2012 35616.35 55.752012-2013 25332.42 36.19

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GINGER DRIED BLEACHED EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 165.26 0.272004-2005 477.56 1.272005-2006 642.35 1.232006-2007 391.28 0.632007-2008 110.02 0.162008-2009 36.17 0.062009-2010 212.2 0.452010-2011 779.72 1.742011-2012 3362.4 6.412012-2013 1669.23 3.11

GINGER DRIED UNBLEACHED EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 983.52 1.542004-2005 2123.57 4.382005-2006 1828.14 3.42006-2007 2737.88 3.972007-2008 1432.59 2.582008-2009 2235.22 4.212009-2010 0.0029 5.222010-2011 4943.52 13.422011-2012 10845.57 24.712012-2013 6899.56 12.36

GINGER FRESH EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 2283.24 0.852004-2005 10875.9 5.12005-2006 6521.27 2.12006-2007 3500.42 1.052007-2008 4531.35 1.242008-2009 2547.15 0.72009-2010 5154.11 1.982010-2011 11507.31 6.472011-2012 11159.07 5.32012-2013 7454.11 5.14

GINGER DRIED UNBLEACHED IMPORT Quantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 2580.11 1.732004-2005 3279.78 3.012005-2006 6496.15 5.072006-2007 9686.36 3.712007-2008 18830.51 7.942008-2009 12442.82 5.662009-2010 7360.59 4.622010-2011 4241.47 7.132011-2012 3333.73 7.92012-2013 3745.98 5.07

GINGER FRESH IMPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 29525.02 4.22004-2005 13522.86 2.612005-2006 15191.21 2.362006-2007 21044.48 3.282007-2008 25611.92 4.512008-2009 27317.18 4.852009-2010 31875 5.642010-2011 18527.69 4.342011-2012 21256.25 4.672012-2013 58984.89 13.27

NUTMEG EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 1225.96 4.692004-2005 1308.63 4.352005-2006 1598.9 6.562006-2007 2030.78 7.92007-2008 1198.84 5.452008-2009 1997.13 10.332009-2010 2922.95 16.092010-2011 1885.86 14.282011-2012 3676.44 40.192012-2013 3349.6 36.64

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NUTMEG IN SHELL EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 578.53 2.132004-2005 740.96 2.32005-2006 697.61 2.722006-2007 704.52 1.972007-2008 378.06 1.442008-2009 645.85 2.462009-2010 840.91 3.422010-2011 521.1 3.072011-2012 1302.45 11.882012-2013 1277.52 10.83

NUTMEG OIL EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 7.94 0.192004-2005 2.69 0.052005-2006 43.76 1.462006-2007 50.5 1.722007-2008 45.68 1.482008-2009 58.74 2.142009-2010 67.26 2.92010-2011 64.7 3.252011-2012 93.26 6.592012-2013 83.82 4.83

NUTMEG IN SHELL IMPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 595.25 1.722004-2005 718.24 2.192005-2006 658.55 2.072006-2007 741.2 2.432007-2008 623.21 2.482008-2009 880.32 3.62009-2010 562.97 2.372010-2011 459.62 2.922011-2012 601.79 4.362012-2013 663.76 5.86

NUTMEG OIL IMPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 4.59 0.142004-2005 23.36 0.452005-2006 7.8 0.222006-2007 6.39 0.212007-2008 3.65 0.132008-2009 8.09 0.32009-2010 15.18 0.562010-2011 15.95 0.922011-2012 10.42 0.562012-2013 8.24 0.75

TURMERIC (CURCUMA) EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 37042.26 28.532004-2005 39397.18 31.032005-2006 51029.66 37.342006-2007 54816.41 38.122008-2009 55945.09 54.572009-2010 56397.32 80.182010-2011 68431.51 169.042011-2012 101387.76 180.412012-2013 89399.88 102.54

TURMERIC OLEORESINS EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 197.07 3.562004-2005 188.3 3.812005-2006 203.99 5.232006-2007 341.09 9.182008-2009 353.46 8.782009-2010 522.61 9.162010-2011 467.74 28.462011-2012 528.7 42.982012-2013 637.88 42.98

Page | 98

GREEN CHILLY EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 3838.33 1.962004-2005 7952.23 2.022005-2006 8764.7 3.352006-2007 18187.8 4.912007-2008 26894.85 10.922008-2009 30198.1 10.352009-2010 30652.95 13.292010-2011 28441.66 13.452011-2012 46702.96 20.242012-2013 35991.98 16.83

CHILLY POWDER EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 28347.26 22.972004-2005 33201.24 25.742005-2006 39755.5 25.742006-2007 34955.39 35.172007-2008 49909.04 53.72008-2009 50324.24 56.232009-2010 45899.54 62.982010-2011 58817.39 71.782011-2012 59230.73 97.592012-2013 62682.13 101.54

CHILLY SEED EXPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 367.6 0.262004-2005 340.24 0.242005-2006 424.3 0.272006-2007 127.17 0.092007-2008 276.05 0.252008-2009 379.3 0.422009-2010 283 0.582010-2011 420.33 0.482011-2012 614.67 0.922012-2013 1853 1.94

CHILLY SEED IMPORTQuantity (Tonnes) Values in US $

Million2003-2004 100.38 0.082004-2005 25.38 0.022005-2006 74.98 0.062006-2007 0.04 02007-2008 75 0.082008-2009 325 0.332009-2010 775 0.572010-2011 175.03 0.292011-2012 303.07 0.532012-2013 616.6 0.94

HSC CODE of SpicesName of the Commodity HSC CODECARDAMOM OLEORESINS 33019015

CARDAMOM POWDER 09083070

LARGE CARDAMOM 09083010

CARDAMOM SMALL ALLEPPEY GREEN 09083020

COORG CARDAMOM SMALL 09083030

CLOVE LEAF/STEM OIL 33012921

CLOVE, NOT EXTRACTED (OTHER THAN STEM) 9070020

CORIANDER OF SEED QLTY 09092010

SEEDS OF CORIANDER 090920

CUMIN OLEORESIN 33019024

CUMIN POWDER 09109922

SEEDS OF CUMIN 090930

GINGER 091010

GINGER DRIED BLEACHED 09101030

GINGER DRIED UNBLEACHED 09101020

GINGER FRESH 09101010

NUTMEG 090810

NUTMEG IN SHELL 09081010

NUTMEG OIL 33012932

TURMERIC (CURCUMA) 091030

TURMERIC OLEORESINS 33019014

PEPPER OLEORESINS 33019013

BLACK PEPPER GARBLED 09041130

PEPPER NEITHER CRUSHED NOR GROUND 090411

LIGHT BLACK PEPPER 09041120

BLACK PEPPER UNGARBLED 09041140

CHILLY SEED 09042040

GREEN CHILLY 07096010

CHILLY POWDER 09042020

Source: DGFT (Directorate General of Foreign Trade)