Kochi, June 27 (KNN) India has registered a 41% jump in its exports of spices and spice products during the first two months of the 2023-24 fiscal year.

During April-May 2023, exports of spices and spice products were worth Rs 6702.52 crore (USD 815.39 million) compared to Rs 4746.85 crore (USD 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.

D Sathiyan, Secretary, Spices Board said that despite facing challenges such 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 USD 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 Sathiyan.

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.  (KNN Bureau)