The Hindu Business Line : Netherlands— key player in global cardamom trade

THE Netherlands plays a central role in world cardamom trade by importing whole cardamom for cleaning and processing and re-exporting primarily to the US, Eastern Europe and West Asia.

The total demand for cardamom in the Netherlands is around 158 tonne in 2001-02 and India's contribution is 24 tonnes. About 65 per cent of the imports into the country are for export only.

The popularity of cardamom has risen of late in the Netherlands, though next only to pepper and ginger. It is used mainly in ready-to-use mixtures by the industrial sector and by grinders.

Costa Rica is the largest supplier of cardamom in the world. Guatemala, Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria, Thailand, South Africa and Nicaragua are the important competitors for India.

With cumin seed and turmeric, these spices are an essential ingredient in curry powder and in international meat or salad dishes of popular ethnic cuisine.

Cardamom is used primarily in the food industry. In the ground form, it is used in baked goods, curry powder, sausages, soups and tobacco flavouring. Its oil and oleoresin is used in canned soups and meat production.

Although the Netherlands is a small consumer of herbs and spices compared with neighbour countries such as Germany and France, it is an important intermediary in world trade of spices and has a long tradition in this trade.

Apart from caraway seed and some fresh herbs, no spices are domestically produced in any significant quantity. In 2001, the Netherlands accounted for 27 per cent of all EU imports of spices and herbs. The Dutch traders import large quantities for cleaning, reconditioning, blending and mixing to the specifications of different end users.

The margins charged by different intermediaries in the spice and herb trade are influenced by many factors, such as current and expected future harvest situation, availability or number of sources for the particular spice, level of demand and trend in prices.

"All these factors make it extremely difficult to provide information on typical margins in trade," according to a study jointly conducted by Dr P. Arunachalam, Head of Department of Applied Economics, Cochin University of Science and Technology, and Dr Wim Pelupessey, senior economist in Tilburg University, The Netherlands.

Since the mid-1990s, the apparent consumption of spices and herbs in this country has more than doubled in volume. Preference for ethnic food by the multi-cultural population and the increasing popularity of convenience food such as ready meals of cooking sauces (in which all ingredients such as herbs and spices are already added) among the Dutch are some of the reasons for the growth.