Indian Spices-Current Status, Prospects and Challenges

Abstract

Indian is the land of spices. It grows over 50 different varieties of spices, while spices such as black pepper and cardamom have originated in this country, it is also a major production center for many other spices like ginger, turmeric, chillies, tree spices and seed spices with a total area of 2.5 million ha. Under spices cultivation. India’s spice production is around 208 million tones annually. Of this about 10 percent is exported to over 150 countries. USA, European Union, Australia, Japan, the Middle east and Oceanic countries are the principal importers of Indian spices.The current world trade in spices is about 4.5 million tones valued at US $ 1,500 million. India contributes about 45-50 percent of this supply in volume and about 23 percent in value terms.