KOCHI: Exports of spices and spice products from India registered a huge jump during the first two months of the current financial year.
During April-May 2023, exports of spices and spice products were worth Rs 6702.52 crore ($815.39 million) compared to Rs 4746.85 crore ($618.63 million) during the same period in the previous year, an increase of 41% in rupee terms and 32% in dollar terms of value.
"Despite facing challenges such as an increase in domestic prices of spices like chilli and cumin and reduced/deferred demand due to the economic stress in some of the importing countries, the Indian spices sector, during FY 2022–23, has shown much resilience to put up an export performance on par with that of the previous year. In fact, during 2022–23, India exported close to $4 billion worth of spices (Rs 31761.38 crore), registering an increase of 4.74 % in terms of rupee terms compared to 2021–22," said D Sathiyan, secretary, Spices Board.
The spices exported during 2022–23 are valued at Rs 31,761.38 crore as against Rs 30,324.32 crore during 2021–22. The major contributors to the spice export basket in terms of value were chilli (33%), cumin (13%), spice oil and oleoresins (13%), mint products (11%), turmeric (5%), curry powder (4%), cardamom (small) (3%) and pepper (2%) which together contributed to more than 80% of the total export earnings of spices.
The major importers of Indian spices during 2022–23 were China (20%), the USA (14%), Bangladesh (7%), the UAE (6%), Thailand (5%), Indonesia (4%), Malaysia (4%), the UK (3%), Sri Lanka (3%), Germany (2%), the Netherlands (2%), Nepal (2%) and Saudi Arabia (2%), contributing more than 70% of the export earnings of spices. Out of the top 11 destinations, exports to seven major destinations increased during FY 2022–23, an official release said here.
In fact, spice exports registered an increase of 20% in volume, 23% in rupee terms, and 14% in dollar terms of value during April 2023 compared to April 2022. The export performance for April 2023 shows a major increase over the previous year on account of increased exports of spices such as chilli, cumin, turmeric, fennel, and garlic.
The exports of spices in April 2023 stood at 1,43,523 tonnes valued at Rs 3077.68 crore ($375.22 million) as against 1,19,534 tonnes valued at Rs 2505.93 crore ($328.99 million) in April 2022.
The major items of exports (in dollar terms of value) were chilli (39%), cumin (17%), spice oil & oleoresins (10%), mint products (7%), turmeric (6%), curry powder (4%), coriander (3%), and fennel (3%), while the major destinations were China (32%), USA (11%), Bangladesh (8%), Indonesia (5%), UAE (4%), Malaysia (4%), Thailand (3%), Sri Lanka (3%), Germany (2%), UK (2%), Saudi Arabia (2%), Nepal (2%), Japan (1%), and the Netherlands (1%).
Compared to May 2022, there has been an increase of +60% in the exports of spices in terms of value in rupees and +50% in terms of value in US dollars.