Encouraged by the positive impact of buyer-seller meets (BSM), the Spices Board is going ahead with more such events in the current fiscal to support the Indian spice industry.

The Board has so far conducted seven online BSMs with the objective to strengthen the supply chain; to bridge the gap between cultivators and traders in understanding each other’s challenges and specific requirements, and for overall promotion of spices exports.

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D Sathiyan, Secretary, Spices Board, said the Indian spice sector did well despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. During April-August, the sector recorded a 15 per cent growth in volume of exports over the same period in 2019. Many factors contributed to the performance and the instrument of BSM as a trade promotion tool is one among them.

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Virtual platforms

Buyer-seller meets facilitate trade by establishing direct linkages between the two major ends of the spice supply chain, the spice growers and the exporters. The Board has been conducting BSMs in its routine physical form all these years but due to the changed ground realities on account of the pandemic, it switched over to virtual platforms as a trade facilitation measure which, obviously, has served well, he said.

The online BSMs were useful in conveying to the stakeholders the surge in demand for Indian spices, especially those with immune-boosting properties. In some of these virtual events, importers of spices from other countries too participated and had direct interactions with exporters. The buyer-seller meets, some of which were organised in association with industry associations, in general have helped link new supply sources with the mainstream markets, he added.

The Board officials said that BSMs helped showcase the spices sector of the North-Eastern regions, which is renowned for intrinsically rich spices such as high pungent chillies (King Chilli), Bird’s eye chilli, high curcumin turmeric, large cardamom, ginger, etc. The BSM for saffron provided a first-of-its-kind platform for saffron growers to build linkages with buyers.

Focus on Egypt

Focusing on Egypt, the Board with the Embassy of India, Cairo, organised a virtual meet. Egypt is a significant market for Indian spices and India exported 17,520 tonnes of spices to that country during 2018-19. There were also imports at 1,410.93 tonnes. A traditional market for Indian cumin, Egypt brought more than 10,000 tonnes of cumin at an estimated value of ₹130 crore, the officials added.

GI-tagged spices were in high demand during the BSMs along with other focus commodities such as turmeric, ginger, chilli, large cardamom, black pepper, etc. The upcoming BSMs include events focused on organic spices from Sikkim and spices of Karnataka, Meghalaya and Maharashtra, among others.

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