Speakers at a recent seminar have stressed the need to carry out better marketing campaign for Indian spices in international markets to help strengthen Brand India.

D. Sathiyan, Secretary, Spices Board said focusing on value-added spices rather than raw products would further carve a name globally. Since India is known as the spice bowl of the world, he said the need of the hours is to emphasis on quality and food safety standards, product development, and R&D.

“Instead of being driven by guesswork, let’s be driven by analysis, so that we can attain the ambitious goal set by the government.”, he said at the seminar organised by Drip Capital on creating Brand India.

Challenges faced by exporters

Cherian Xavier, Chairman, All India Spices Exporters Forum, highlighted the need to address raw material and labour shortages, supplier issues and rising shipping costs to build on the high growth momentum. “However, if we continue to dig deeper to develop innovative products and launch strategic partnerships, India has the potential to market its spices better globally”, he said.

Several exporters spoke on the challenges such as difficulties in sourcing, procuring, and storing raw materials for a long time, especially in the oleoresins manufacturing space. They also pointed out the rejection of shipments at Chinese ports because of MRL issues, complex process involving certificate of packaging/quality/weight checks/lab reports etc.  

K.M. Harilal, Joint DGFT, said, “We need to think out of the box and conduct marketing campaigns on a large scale. For instance, there is a huge demand for white pepper from Japan because of its medicinal properties. India should capitalize on this growing trend. Bottlenecks do exist and there is a disconnection between stakeholders and policymakers, but we have to help one another conquer challenges.”

Pushkar Mukewar, CEO/Founder of Drip Capital, said, “India produces 75 of the 109 varieties of spices listed by the International Organization for Standardization, of which 80 per cent is for captive usage while only 15-20 per cent get exported. Given that Covid-19 pandemic has opened new opportunities, the time is ripe for India to develop complex spice products to better cater to international markets and help strengthen ‘Brand India.’”

Considering value added products are the way forward, the speakers urged the policy makers to take steps for ease of doing business to achieve the projected growth. There is a need to develop innovative products and launch strategic partnerships, increasing marketing efforts and focus on food safety standards.  

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