INDIAN producers of cardamom are being hurt by smuggling of Guatemalan cardamom via Nepal, Jairam Ramesh, India’s minister for commerce, has warned. The country’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence recently discovered that thousands of tonnes of Guatemalan cardamom had been smuggled into India through Nepal, with which it has a free trade agreement allowing spices to […]
THE Indian government has begun a process of identifying commodities such as coffee, pepper and cardamom, that need to be registered as Geographical Indications to protect the country’s trade interests. Among the products to be registered as Geographical Indications, which means that only products from a particular area can be labelled using the regional designation, […]
INDIA’S commerce minister, Jairam Ramesh, has warned of a crisis in the plantation industry and urged caution on commodities such as pepper, tea, coffee and rubber while finalising the proposed free trade agreement with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mr Ramesh said the plantation […]
INDIA’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has estimated that the amount of cardamom smuggled into India through Nepal now runs to “thousands of tons.” “We estimated the quantity of Guatemalan cardamom smuggled through Nepal to be a few hundred tonnes. But when we spoke to the DRI we were informed that it runs to thousands […]
INDIA plans to double spice exports from the current level of $500m to more than $1bn within the next five years and the commerce ministry has asked the Spices Board to prepare a blueprint on how this should be done. “India has the potential to emerge as the global hub for the reprocessing and export […]
INDIAN spice exports in 2005/06 surpassed the $500m mark for the first time in the country’s history while also achieving an all-time high in terms of rupees. Total shipments out of India stood at Rs22.95bn ($518m), registering growth of 4.3% in rupee terms and 5.6% in dollar terms over 2004/05. The average free on board […]
INDIA’S Forward Markets Commission (FMC) is taking steps to streamline trading at the country’s commodity exchanges and is mulling over the need and feasibility of shutting down futures trading on Saturdays. The commodity market regulator has also directed the bourses to put an Investor Protection Fund (IPF) in place and is issuing guidelines for its […]