Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Sep 07, 2006
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Sep 07, 2006 |
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Agri-Biz & Commodities - Spices & Condiments Web Extras - New Projects Cardamom planters float new company for direct marketing G.K. Nair
Plans on the anvil Company to start first trial retail marketing in Madurai. To set up research and development unit. Has set up small packaging unit at Cumbum in TN
Kochi , Sept. 6 Cardamom growers in Kerala and Tamil Nadu have floated a company, South India Green Cardamom Company Ltd, aimed at taking up direct marketing of the produce both within the country and overseas. The company, registered under the Companies Act and promoted by 50 planters, will start its first trial retail marketing in Madurai next month, Mr T. Ashok Kumar, one of the promoters and President of the Kerala Cardamom Growers Union, told Business Line. It planned to bring all the 25,000 planters registered with the Spices Board into the public limited company, in which traders would also be given shares, he said. It has been floated with an authorised capital of Rs 50 lakh and that would be enhanced based on its success. The objective of the company is to ensure remunerative prices for the cardamom growers for which it would take up, apart from production, procurement, grading, pooling, handling, processing, marketing, selling, import and export of cardamom and its products, he said. Besides, a research and development unit would also be set up. Already it has set up a small packaging unit at Cumbum in Tamil Nadu where small pouches are being manufactured now.
Trial marketing
Initially, for trial marketing, pouches with two gm of cardamom priced at Rs 2 is being packed here. The idea is to sell it to small teashops and through other small retail outlets to cater to the poor people for whom this aromatic spice remains inaccessible. It is now available in 50 and 100- gm packets and priced high. For this purpose 360 kg of cardamom has been pooled, he said. Depending upon the success in Madurai, it would be taken to other areas in due course. At present, the consumers of cardamom in the country are mainly the elite, and upper- and middle-class families. This would increase the per capita consumption of the commodity in the country, which in turn would create more demand, Mr S. Prabhakaran, a Cumbum-based planter said. At the same time it would help eliminate the exploitation by a string of intermediaries and that itself would ensure the farmers of better prices, he said.
Quality
According to Mr S. Jeevanandan, another planter of Pathumuri in Kumily, as the production, procurement, processing and packaging are done by the planters, the company could ensure good quality for the products. Maximum moisture content in the capsules when dried would be 6 per cent. But, when the produce is passed through intermediaries, the moisture level goes up, and it would reduce the quality of the produce. "When we market it direct from the plantation there won't be more handling," he said. Mr P.C. Syriac, former Chairman of the Rubber Board, would be the Managing Director of the company, Mr Ashok Kumar said.
The company, he said, would explore more and more rural markets and promote this spice among the masses. It will also enter into auctioning of the commodity, apart from finding potential markets abroad.
Mr Ashok Kumar said the total cardamom output in the country in 2005-06 was estimated at 12,540 tonnes and of this Kerala's share was 9,765 tonnes and Tamil Nadu's 1,000 tonnes. The balance is from Karnataka.
Of the total production, exports ranged between 650-875 tonnes and the domestic market absorbed the rest. At present, the per capita consumption is negligible and hence, through the new marketing strategy being adopted by the company its consumption could be increased significantly, he added.
More Stories on : Direct Marketing | Spices & Condiments | New Projects
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