Spices Board to explore global market for large cardamom

KOCHI: Spices Board is all set to explore global market for large cardamom following the declaration of Sikkim, the principal producer of the spice, as the first state in India to have fully organic farming activity.

Organically grown large cardamom is identified as niche product with increasing popularity among the premium class consumers. Hence, it is priced higher than the smaller cardamom grown elsewhere in the country.

“Discerning users are willing to pay the extra money,” said Dr A. Jayathilak, chairman of Spices Board, adding that that organically-raised large cardamom was another initiative under the present government’s Make in India mission which aims in making the country a global hub of indigenously-developed products.

India exported 665 tonnes of large cardamom in 2014-15. Sikkim, which grows large cardamom in 17,000 hectares of land, produces 4,000 metric tonnes (90% of the country’s production) of the spice annually.

Dr Jayathilak was in Gangtok last week to attend a function where Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared Sikkim as India’s first organic farming state. Spices Board had designed the ‘Organic Sikkim’ logo that was released on January 18 in the presence of that state’s chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling amid a host of leaders and top officials.

“Our message to farmers is this: ‘You become exporters’. It is simple but strong,” Jayathilak said. Spices Board has a team of 50 employees working in Sikkim to not just sustain organic farming but to empower the growers to earn more from their produce in the coming years.

Large-cardamom cultivation will get further boost in the six months from now as Spices Board is set to launch an e-platform for its famed fortnightly auction in Sikkim’s traditional spice market of Singtam. This is in accordance to the digital India campaign, Dr Jayathilak said.

“The idea is to cut down on middlemen. This will ease the post-harvest flow in the trade of the crop,” he added. “The Singtam auctions (on from 2010) have already had an impact in the national prices of large cardamom, with farmers getting six time more prices than what prevailed five years ago.”