Indian spice exports increase by 25 per cent in Q1

Kochi, Jul 27 (UNI) India's spice exports have gone up by 25 per cent in quantity and 36 per cent in value terms in the first quarter of this financial year compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year, the Spice Board said today.

In a release here, the Board said that the exports reached a level of 111,420 tonnes valued at Rs 967.30 crore or USD 234.53 million compared to 88,950 tonnes valued at Rs 712.97 crore (US$ 156.63 million) in the same period of 2006-07.

The country had achieved 29 per cent of quantity and 27 per cent of value targets set for this year in the first three months.

Spices like pepper, cardamom (large), chilli, coriander, fennel, fenugreek and nutmeg and mace performed better than last year.

Among the value added spices, curry power and spice oils and oleoresins did better.

In the case of mint products, even though there was a marginal decline of quantity exported, value realized had shown significant improvement. However, the export of cardamom (small), ginger, cumin, celery, garlic and vanilla fell short of last year's performance.

The country exported 7000 tonnes of pepper valued at Rs 97.26 crores during April-June, 2007, which was higher by 40 percent in quantity and 137 per cent in value compared to last year.

Chilli exports stood at 52,000 tonnes valued at Rs 288.50 crore against 23715 tonnes valued at Rs 104.76 crore last year. The demand from the traditional buyers like Malaysia and Sri Lanka was on the rise, the Board said.

Presently, India wass the main source of Red Chilli for the international market. After the lean production of last year, the new Chinese crop will reach the market only by October. Pakistan, the other producer, may require a large portion of their September crops for internal consumption.

The country exported 6100 tonnes of coriander valued Rs 22.48 crore against 4900 tonnes valued Rs 18.98 crore last year. It was reported that the East European coriander producers such as Romania and Bulgaria had suffered drought conditions and this may have some impact on their crop.

Nearly 2100 tonnes of fennel valued Rs 11.99 crore was exported against 1500 tonnes valued Rs 8.95 crore last year. Export of fenugreek increased to 4850 tonnes valued at Rs 12.63 crore against 1940 tonnes valued Rs 5.96 crore last year.

Cumin seed exports declined from 8190 tonnes to 4000 tonnes.

However, the export of cumin was likely to pick up in the next few months, as there were reports indicating that the crop in Syria had been damaged considerably due to rain.

The export of valued added spices like Curry power and Spice Oils and Oleoresins had shown an increase of six and nine percent respectively in terms of quantity. During the year, 2625 tonnes of curry power valued Rs 24.17 crore was exported from India as against 2465 tonnes valued Rs 20.05 crore last year.

Significantly, the unit value had increased from Rs 81/kg to Rs 92/kg. In the case of Oils and Oleoresins the exports increased from 1445 tonnes to 1575 tonnes and value realization from Rs 121 crore to Rs 127 crores.

Talking of the appreciation of the Indian Rupee, the Board said this will have an impact on the competitive edge of the Indian exports and may result in some drop in the export of spices and spice products in the coming months.

The Board said that the import of some sensitive spices like pepper, cardamom (small) and turmerid has come down during the first quarter of 2007-08.

UNI