The Hindu Business Line : Subsidy scheme for raising natural vanilla offtake

Kochi, Oct. 2 Considering the plight of vanilla farmers in the country, the Union Commerce Ministry is working out a scheme to support them by providing a subsidy to ice-cream manufacturers in the co-operative and public sectors for using natural vanilla.

The Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, said his Ministry had asked the Spices Board to prepare a scheme in this regard, which will be submitted to the Finance Ministry for approval.

This would be a three-year scheme with a subsidy of Rs 5 crore each year, he said, adding that this would enable to absorb 200 tonnes of natural vanilla beans by the ice cream manufacturers thereby increasing its domestic consumption.

The Minster told reporters here that he had also asked the Health Ministry for mandatory labelling of synthetic vanilla, which is being imported.

Mr Ramesh said India was only a marginal player in the international vanilla market and accounted for only 2 per cent of the international trade.

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