Observing that marketing of spices is a major issue as compared to production, Spices Board Chairman A. Jayathilak urged farmers and exporters to market their products with a unique selling proposition in the global market by striving for geographical indication (GI) labels for their quality spices.

“In international marketing, we need to distinguish the product with a special niche; something that makes the product stand out from the rest of the products in the market place. We must look at the geographical indication as one of the tools to promote our products in the global market,” he told the Spices Board’s Buyer-Seller Meet (BSM) conducted on the sidelines of the five-day Global Kokan Festival 2018.

“For instance, in the best supermarkets of the world you will find the labels like Thalassery pepper or Malabar pepper specifically. This is because they realise that a high premium has to be paid for a geographically-indicated product,” he said.

An estimated potential business transaction of 600 tonne of spices valued at Rs 7 crore was carried out at the BSM. Around 50 exporters and over 160 farmers took part in the meet

According to Jayathilak, exporters should be able to export specifying the GI because over the years they can ensure that a niche has been developed for India’s brand in terms of having specialised niche products.

Over the years production has been growing up but marketing is an issue. Every farmer is telling us they need good price. The whole world is your market place and the whole world can be your buyer. That is possible only if we bring buyers from all across the country and enable you to talk with the farmers, he explained.

Spices Board is looking at the Konkan area specifically. A special team has prepared a report on how to develop the spices and exports from this area. The report has been submitted to the government for funding. The only commodity in which India has 50 per cent of the world trade is spices, he noted.

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