Indian spice exports to KSA rise four-fold in one year

An exclusive Indian trade fair is being scheduled in December this year in Jeddah. India, whose companies have been taking part in international trade exhibitions in Saudi Arabia, is also mounting trade missions periodically to this part of the world with a view to bridging the wide gap in the bilateral trade that remains in favor of the Kingdom.
Indian Consul General Faiz Ahmad Kidwai announced this at the opening of the buyer-seller meet of the Indian Spices Board in the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry yesterday.
Faiz said the Spices Board delegation, which earlier this week visited Riyadh, follows the gem and jewelry road show and catalogue show hosted last month at the JCCI.
“India’s basket of trade with Saudi Arabia mostly relate to petroleum and petroleum products and needs to be diversified. The Spices Board delegation and the delegations that visited earlier are a step in the direction of diversification of our export basket,” Faiz added.
The Saudi-India Joint Economic Commission meeting, which was held in New Delhi in January, will next be hosted in Riyadh after Ramadan.
A composite trade delegation that will accompany the ministerial delegation for the joint Commission meeting will interact with local businessmen in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, Kidwai said.
JCCI Vice Chairman Mazen Batterjee reviewed the growing bilateral ties between the two countries and said the trade figures between the two countries exemplify the growing ties.
He hoped they would strengthen further in times to come. There has been a consistent expansion of the bilateral trade since the exchange of visits by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
There is a four-fold increase in India’s cardamom exports to Saudi Arabia in one year.
“India’s cardamom exports have gone up to 2,968 tons in 2011-2012 from 723 million tons in the previous financial year,” P. M. Sureshkumar, secretary, the Spices Board of India, part of the ministry of commerce and industry, said in his presentation. The delegation, headed by Sureshkumar, includes spices exporters and planters.
Sureshkumar said India exported only 10 percent of its spices production to overseas destinations because of India’s huge domestic consumption.
The board also has been encouraging the production of organic spices, which are grown in northeastern region. “Our vision as a nation is to become the processing hub for spices for the world,” he added.
The board also has an ongoing plan for setting up eight spices’ parks, notably in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh states.
“While most of them are already operational, the remaining few will be set up soon,” Sureshkumar said, adding that 2,000 exporters of spices were registered with the Spices Board. He emphasized that India’s cardamom, especially the smaller variety, has a big demand in the Kingdom because of its rich oil content. “Its oil content is 6.7 percent compared to 3.6 percent of the Guatemalan variety,” he said.
India commands a formidable position in the world spice trade with a 48 percent share in volume and 44 percent in value, Sureshkumar said, adding that India can now boast as the monopoly supplier of spice oils and oleoresins the world over. The country’s position is equally strong in curry powders, spice powders, spice mixtures and spices in consumer packs.
Spices Board has a state-of-the-art testing laboratory at its headquarters in Kochi.
There are also other regional Laboratories in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Tuticorin and Guntur. Through the laboratories, Spices Board undertakes mandatory quality checks for spices exported from India.
Shakeel Ahmad, consul commercial and culture at the Consulate General of India, welcomed Batterjee and other JCCI officials, as well as members of the visiting delegation.
The delegation of exporters and planters includes Anjo Jose, executive director of Mas Enterprises; Hemen Ruparel, CEO of Samex Agency; and Ramaswamy Mathavan, an exporter, and farmers K. M. Sulthan Ibrahim (cardamom planter), Poonkanveettil Rajan Sathi and Mohamed Rowther Najmudeen.
Ahmad echoed the consul general’s statement and thanked the JCCI, especially Chairman Saleh Kamel, Batterjee and Secretary General Adnan Mandoura, for extending full cooperation in hosting India’s trade events.
“The recent catalogue show and the gems and jewelry exporters’ road show at the JCCI were a big hit going by the response of local businessmen,” he said.