Badam makes a re-entry in kitchens as Indians savour it

Almond, or badam, as it is known in most parts of the country, is making a come back into kitchens.

India has just pushed Germany to fourth place to become the third largest importer of almonds from the US last year.

With more and more Indians developing a liking for almonds, imports are set to grow by 26 per cent over the last year’s figure of 102 million pounds (about 46,000 tonnes). The Almonds Board of California, which takes care of interests of almond growers and handlers in the US, expects a further increase in the demand in the next few years.

Known for its medicinal properties for long, almonds has its origin in the Gulf and South Asia.

“We expect the import figures to grow significantly in the next few years.

We see a demand for 166 million pounds (about 75,296 tonnes) of almonds in 2016,” Sudarshan Mazumdar, Regional Director of Almond Board of California, told BusinessLine. “The middle-class is becoming health conscious and realising the importance of almonds in their regular food intake,” he said.

The US is a leader in production of almonds. The western State of California produces two billion pounds (about 9.07 lakh tonnes) or 83 per cent of the world’s production, says the Board.

Set up in 1950s as a quasi-government entity, the Board takes care of the interests of the growers and handlers. It, however, neither procures nor sells almonds. It funds research on finding nutritional and medical attributes of almonds.

Besides doing research on development of marketing and production technologies, the board takes up promotional activities in various global markets in order to create more demand for the produce.

“Californian almonds are exported to 90 global markets, main importers being Spain, China, India and Germany,” he said.

The scope for increased exports to India is immense as the current per capita consumption is very low at 0.09 pounds.

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