To capitalise on India’s prowess in the coriander cultivation, Spices Board now looks at tapping opportunities in export of whole coriander and other value-added processed products from the seed-spice.

At a recently-held webinar on “Accelerating Quality Production, Post-Harvesting, Value Addition & Export of Coriander from India”, Spices Board Chairman-cum-Secretary D Sathiyan asked entrepreneurs and exporters to harness the opportunity in export of whole coriander and other processed products such as coriander split (daal), powder and essential oil.

Exploring value-added products such as Indian curry powder and mouth-freshener imbued by coriander is the way forward to increase coriander usage both in domestic and export markets. Spices Board and DBT-SABC Biotech KISAN hub — in partnership with key stakeholders including ICAR-NRCSS, RSAMB & Kota Agri University — prepared a roadmap to boost export of coriander and minimise the imports.

Promoting Rajasthan

The Hadoti region of South-East Rajasthan and Guna district of Madhya Pradesh are endowed with coriander crop. Hadoti is also considered as epicentreof production of coriander seed.

Looking at the prospects, Spices Board member Anu Shree Poonia has urged to put coordinated efforts by all departments to make Rajasthan the next spice manufacturing and export hub. Notably, Ramganj APMC Mandi in Kota district is the largest coriander market, while the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries had recently assigned “coriander” to the district of Kota in the list of One District One Product (ODOP).

Yashwant Bafna, Chairman, APMC, Ramganj Mandi and PCK Maheshwaran, a coriander exporter, touched upon the challenges faced by processors, industry and exporters and called upon the Centre and State Governments to immediately take measures against coriander price manipulation caused by futures trading either by limiting contract validity from 6 months to 3 months or by banning futures trading.

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