Gujarat's red chilli grower's upbeat about their business prospects

Seertha (Gujarat), Mar 25 : Red chilli growers in Gujarat are optimistic about enjoying a good business season, owing to the crops failure in China.

India being the largest producer of red chillies, is expecting to bag major export orders as China, the closest competitor, has experienced crop failure due to bad weather conditions.

Farmers,are harvesting a double crop this year over are expectations of a mega jump over last year's yield of 100 quintals per acre of land.

Amrut Patel, a village head, said: "Due to rain and intense cold weather in China, the chilli crop was destroyed. Similarly, in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, immense cold weather resulted in a lesser yield. China exports red chillies, but the stock is down by about 10 to 15 per cent. Therefore, exports will be entirely from here. There is scope for increasing exports of Sertha's chillies."

India has over 40 varieties of chillies, including Sertha Special, Desi marcha, gholar, gondaliya, resham, patti, double patti, simla, vidhvani, tomato patti, MP chilli and longi.

Farmers, traders and customers are all optimistic about fetching higher prices with the rise in the quality and quantity of production.

Hemant Rawal, a customer said: "The quality we get here is excellent, the rates as compared to earlier years are not very high, the difference is hardly Rs. five to ten. Sertha has the best quality, and there are no complaints against it so far."

India had exported 148,500 tonnes of red chillies in 2006-07.

In the first eight months of 2007-08, India exported 128,000 tonnes of red chillies, up by 56 per cent from what was exported a year ago.

India and China have a 25 and 24 per cent share of total global red chilli exports, respectively.

Official sources say that Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are the main buyers of Indian spices in 2007-08.

According to trade experts in 2007-08, production would increase by 17 per cent to 1.4 million tonnes. The usual production is 10 per cent and with this year's ideal climatic conditions and the fall in China's chilli trade, India is expecting to reap a bumper business season.

ANI