India’s spices production has surged 60 per cent to 10.7 million tonnes (mt) in 2020-21 from 6.76 mt in 2014-15, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said while releasing the “Spice Statistics at a Glance 2021”, published by the Directorate of Betel Nut and Spices Development under Ministry of Agriculture.

Exports of spices nearly doubled to ₹29,535 crore ($3.98 billion) last year from ₹14,899 crore in 2014-15 following bumper harvest of commodities such as chilli, ginger, turmeric and cumin, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. In terms of volume, the exports increased to 1.6 mt from 0.89 mt during the last seven years. Share of spices in exports of all horticulture produce is about 41 per cent.

During these seven years, the annual growth rate of spices production was about 7.9 per cent in which cumin recorded 14.8 per cent, garlic 14.7 per cent, ginger 7.5 per cent, fennel 6.8 per cent, coriander 6.2 per cent, fenugreek 5.8 per cent, red chilli 4.2 per cent and turmeric 1.3 per cent.

The government has been supporting farmers by developing and distributing necessary planting materials of high yielding varieties and that is one of the factors for the massive growth of quality spice production in the country, the ministry said.

Tomar said this statistical compilation will help policy makers and stakeholders like scientists, researchers and farmers in the spices sector for strategic planning.

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