With the Prime Minister Narendra Modi declaring Sikkim as India’s first organic farming State, the country is all set to find more demand for its large cardamom in the international market.
According to Spices Board, Sikkim produces a chunk of value-added cardamom and this organically grown spice may find its market especially in the growing premium class consumers whose number is increasing of late.
A Jayathilak, Chairman, Spices Board, said that organically raised large cardamom was an initiative under the Centre’s Make in India programme and it would be priced higher than its fertiliser-fed counterpart. “Discerning users are willing to pay the extra money,” he said.
India exported 665 tonnes of large cardamom in 2014-15. In the first half of the current fiscal, the powerful flavouring spice, endemic to a certain section of the Himalayan terrain, has earned the country ₹2,011.50 lakh in the international market. Sikkim, which grows large cardamom on 17,000 hectares, produces 4,000 tonnes (90 per cent of the country’s production) annually.
Jayathilak, who was in Gangtok last week to attend the function declaring Sikkim as first organic farming State, said that Spices Board has a team of 50-odd employees working in the north-eastern State to not just sustain organic farming but also empower the growers to earn more from their produce in the coming years.
Large-cardamom cultivation will get further boost in the six months from now as Spices Board is set to launch an e-platform for its famed fortnightly auction in Sikkim’s traditional spice market of Singtam.
The Singtam auctions (on from 2010) have already had an impact in the national prices of large cardamom, with farmers getting six time more prices than what prevailed five years ago, he added.