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Nutmeg prices are have declined sharply in the domestic market on slack demand while they remained outpriced in the world market, blocking the commodity’s export potential.
“Indian nutmeg is trading $1,500 higher than Indonesia. At this level even origin-specific buyers have switched to Indonesia because their quality is far superior to the Indian variety,” said Anand Kishor, IPSTA President and Proprietor, Kuruwa Enterprises.
Indian nutmeg is priced at $8,600 a tonne. As against this Sri Lankan produce is traded at $8,000 a tonne. Indonesia is offering its produce at $7,250 a tonne, he said.
Harvesting in India has begun and total production of nutmeg with shell is estimated to be 15,000 tonnes. Of this the shell weight comes to 30 per cent and thus the total output without shell would come to around 9,500 tonnes. Mace production is estimated at 1,000 tonnes, he said.
Surplus exportedIndia exports its surplus nutmeg production mainly to the Gulf countries and China. As against the official export target of 4,500 tonnes of nutmeg and mace valued at ₹213.75 crore for the fiscal year 2016-17 India has shipped out 4,070 tonnes of the commodity valued at ₹194.17 crore in the April-December period.
Exports in the corresponding period in 2015-16 stood at 3,015 tonnes valued at ₹154.11 crore.
Thus, there was an increase of 35 per cent in quantity and 26 per cent in value.
But for mace “we are net importers since the domestic consumption is estimated to be around 1,500 tonnes. We import nutmeg and mace from Sri Lanka and Indonesia,” said Kishor.
During the financial year 2015-16 India imported 490 tonnes of nutmeg valued at ₹19.55 crore and 1,200 tonnes of mace valued at ₹79.50 crore, according to Spices Board sources.
With a total output of 15,000 tonnes India accounts for approximately 55 per cent of the world production. Of this the country exports around 30 per cent. Until recently there had been a reasonable supply and demand equilibrium and at times, with seasonal under-supply, prices remained firm. However, this has changed recently due to the impact of plantation material, which has outstripped demand.
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