Spices: Indian Industry Overview

India has traditionally been known for its spice and culinary herb production. It is one of the largest spice producing and consuming country. Its strategic location, climatic conditions, advanced production processes and availability of cheap labour makes it advantageous for the producers to ensure large scale production of quality spices and herbs.

 

India's Share in the Global Spice Market
The Indian spice industry is booming with a substantial increase in exports over the past few years. India accounts for nearly 45% and 30% in terms of volume and value in the world spice trade.

 

The booming global spice market also poses good opportunities for the Indian spice industry to provide quality spices at competitive prices. India faces stiff competition form China, Malaysia and Pakistan in terms of pricing of the products. Manufacturers should therefore ensure consistency in supply, product quality, pricing and marketing strategy to increase the share in exports.

 

Producers are incorporating latest methods and technologies to ensure higher quality of spices and herbs. India is one of the prime exporters of pepper, chillies, turmeric, seed spices and spice derivatives to the rest of the world. USA, EU, Japan and Srilanka import these Indian spices in large volumes.

 

India's share in Global Spice Derivative Market
Spice derivatives can be categorized into spice oil, oleoresins and essential oils. The demand for spice derivatives is also increasing due to the hygiene, standardization and consistency factor. India contributes nearly 70% to the world spice derivative market. It exports largely to the US, EU etc. Indian southern states including Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu provide concentrated oils and oleoresins for use in perfumery, pharmaceuticals, foods processing and industrial chemical industry.

 

Government Initiative Indian Government is providing financial assistance to farmers, growers and spice producers and has also taken certain steps to ensure the availability of better quality spices, more hygienically processed spices in order to boost exports. Indian spice board also provides financial and technical assistance to farmers.