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 […]
TRADING volumes at the Kansas City Board of Trade were running 57.8% ahead of last year on a yearto-date basis up to April. A record 483,398 contracts were traded at the exchange during April, exceeding the previous April high of 310,387 contracts set in 2005 by 55.7%. Hard red winter wheat futures set a new […]
THE Indian Spices Board (ISB) has formulated a training programme to create a group of experts that are fully conversant in good agricultural practices for cultivating spices. Spices covered by the training will include vanilla, cardamom, chilli, pepper, ginger, turmeric, herbal spices, seed spices and tree spices. The latest plan is said to be similar […]
CARDAMOM is facing one of its worst periods of the last decade, with prices plummeting to rock bottom levels due to rising yields and higher production in the world’s top producing nations. According to Indian trade sources, there has been a rise in yield per hectare and excess production in India’s main competitor, Guatemala. There […]
FARMERS in the Idukki district of India are pressing ahead with plans to set up a new cardamom and pepper processing and extraction unit in Ramakkalmedu at a cost of around Rs50m ($1.12m). According to leading officials of the Indian Organic Spices Farmers Producer Company, more than 50 spice growers in the district have joined […]
GROWING demand and speculative buying of cardamom in the Middle East saw Guatemala raise its exports of the spice in 2005. Guatemala, by far the world’s leading exporter of cardamom, exported 31,643 tonnes of the spice in 2005, 11% more than the 28,569 tonnes sold abroad in 2004. This also represents good growth from 2003’s […]