The spicy business

When in the lonely roads, i pass by some strange faces, stumbling, fumbling in my mind,jerked by some nostalgic thoughts, suddenly something catches my attention, i close my eyes in deep retention, i feel the aroma of a known doorstep,only smelt but unheard,unwritten, oh god is this an Indian kitchen!!!!!!!!!!!
India is the home of spice, which adds aroma to our food, the profundity of which talks our culture, and the purity of which is something we cherish. It is the illustrate of the Indian kitchen and pride of the Indian mothers.

Spices from ages has a nostalgic connection with us but how many of us know that this emotional colossal has a business gargantuan to it. This fiscal, amidst all the speculations about a bad result for the third quarter,ever-rising food inflation, unseasonal monsoon, rate hike by the central bank, FII erosion and the jittery sensex, there is a comrade of the economy where the nation has embarked all its export load and the soldier has shouldered it responsively and responsibly.
Of course i am talking about the international spice trading happening through India.
The statute authority for spice trading in the nation has increased the export budget this year from $4700 mn to $5000mn because of the good production and more importantly the heavy global demand.
Spices account for around 39% of total export by volume and 22% by value in this country.(source: spice-trade.com) and is the only support system for the nation when the country's export drastically is coming down because of the food-grain crisis resulting in unfathomable current a/c crisis. Spices are the only commodity which is exported and generating dollars for the country and strengthening our currency which is already vulnerable.
The break up or the contribution of different variants and types of spices to export are as follows:
Seed spices: 22%
Turmeric :    14%
Oleoresins:  7%
Peeper    :    7%
Cadimum: 1.1%
Ginger   :   2.7%
Tamarind : 1%
and many others. An interesting point to note here is that chili which accounts for around 33% of the total exports have not been pictured in the list this year but still chillies are exported in heavy amount in the form of chili powder but green chillies could not be exported much because of supply side constraints.
So, an obvious question that raises is why supply side constraints cannot or did not happen for other spice crops. The nature has blessed our nation as optimal climatic conditions for spice cultivation. The major spice producing states are Kerela, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. All these states are surrounded by the western ghats  which logs water in necessary conditions and also provide suitable soil for its production.
On the other hand, green chillies  are extensively produced in Guntur A.P and are exposed to seasonal variations.
Last year, India alone fulfilled 65% of the global demand by focusing only upon the Latin -American market only. A very big pie that we are leaving is that of Canadian market.
Till 2009, there were more tham 1,000,000 Indo-Canadians spread over Toronto, Vancouver to Calgary to Edmonton. All of them love and miss the Indian cuisines but find it expensive and most of the time unavailable there.The extreme cold weather there can pivot the medicinal property of these spices too. But for these to be robust, a proper communication strategy needs to be established for the epitomization of Caveat emptor.

This is a huge revenue generating model to leverage upon but only few things that has to be done is to give more attention to this sector in terms of distribution, prices paid to farmers and shipping only( Note: not much is needed to be spend on storage as these crops have innate properties that preserves itself for a very long period. Also, not much spending is needed on irrigation).

so, we saw the acme of this old but strong comrade and its capacity to materialize. Only the time ahead can utter that the discussion held will be limited to Bizonomics or will it fizz out to the policy makers who should have considered it seriously long ago....