When the Queen is back to reign…

That aroma of the small green pod of the lush forests of the Western Ghats of India which mesmerised the people of the distant lands of the ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and China still continues to pervade far and wide. The liking for this marvellous little smart small green cardamom is seemingly crossing into new territories as is felt from the changing trend in trading patterns.  Cardamom that is mainly cultivated on the slopes of Western Ghats in South India, Guatemala to a great extend, in miniscule levels in Sri Lanka and some other African countries, are now slowly been demanded in countries where it had not gone so far.

The traditional major markets in West Asia and Far East have been lukewarm since the mid eighties to Indian cardamom merchandise on account of price disadvantages over a period of time. Indian cardamom that ruled the Middle East market in particular and the rest of the world in general for many years had all on a sudden faced the onslaught of stiff competition from Guatemala.  It is more or less an established fact that the Central American country of Guatemala started cultivation of cardamom in the late seventies with the strains of the cardamom plant from Sri Lanka.  It is quite obvious that seed materials of cardamom would have been taken to Sri Lanka from its indigenous source of the Western Ghats in South India. The travelling traders of the North Western states of India would have also carried with them seed materials to Guatemala that helped in the establishment of vast expanse of plantations. The virgin lands of Guatemala responded well and helped in reaping good fortunes through heavy levels of production and high productivity. With no worthwhile demand for cardamom in the domestic market, Guatemala was left with no option other than selling out of the country at whatever price they fetched. The principal markets of the West Asian region became their focus. The price advantages Guatemalan trader could offer slowly displaced the front running Indian cardamom to back of the shelves. The cheap priced Guatemalan cardamom got labelled as cardamom and the high priced Indian produce came to be branded as Indian cardamom. These changes cumulatively brought into effect near banishing of Indian cardamom by the West Asian importer. The pricing strategies of the Guatemalan  traders were diplomatically evolved in such a way that prices were kept closer down the level of prices of Indian cardamom. The plucking of the cardamom from the plantations by the natives and offering to the traders in the markets of Guatemala did not add much to the cost of production.  Pricing was based on the demand from the West Asian buyers.

The Guatemalan marketing management had cost the Indian cardamom very dear resulting in crashing prices for want of export buying. It was very evident that the Indian cardamom prices governed by the pull and push of the strong domestic market cannot match the competitors’ pricing in the international market. The many attempts to make an upbeat did not fructify and the forcible option was to disarm self. In reality the very small purchases of premium grades from India by quality conscious traders in Saudi Arabia helped in retaining cardamom as an exported spice for quite some time now. Unprecedented and unexpected, the trade in cardamom faced a perilous situation. The negligible export of cardamom happened for the premier grades only to prestigious buyers.  Otherwise the export surplus remained at home and had caused glut in the domestic market pulling down prices. 

The timely and intelligent promotions by the Spices Board to expand the domestic market base for cardamom had yielded results. The domestic markets could absorb the surplus and this process of regularising the intake of supplies got reflected in stabilising prices.  The general awareness of the nutritional, dietary and medicinal aspects of cardamom had lent the way for more consumption resulting in off take.

With the export market for Indian cardamom remaining in lull for more than one and a half decade, the economy had started believing the fact that global market is lost for ever.  But to the astonishment of market ‘pundits’, Indian cardamom exports took a U turn showing an unusual and unprecedented rise. The reasons for this phenomenal rise are to be explored and cannot just be felt complacent with the usual reason of a production fall in Guatemala besides the very poor quality of the crop.  However this has shown rays of hope for the Indian cardamom industry. The dark days are seemingly over with better prospects for the future. Though the usual reason for the change in attitude of the importers to buy from India could be that of low supplies from the other competitive source of Guatemala, it just cannot be taken for face value.  There seems to be a new trend developing with regard to the use of cardamom. Is it a general liking for Indian cardamom in the Saudi market or a new demand that is happening on account of a new user pattern?  Even the export trade was not able to trace out the new merchandise trade route. But the possibility of re exports of quality Indian cardamom to a preferred overseas destination could also happen. 

But it was to the surmise of every one that the Queen who lost her bastion in the West Asian region is back again like a midnight dream. Sending shocks of surprise, the Indian small cardamom recorded phenomenal rise in exports during 2011-12. As the cardamom exports jumped from 1,175 tonnes in 2010-11 to 4,650 tonnes in 2011-12, the impact was beyond expression.  

 

Cardamom of the genus Elattaria cardamomum is a crop of high sensitivity these days unlike in the past. Crippled in controversies over pricing and trading in the production areas in India, the cardamom economy has always been under a cloud.  Being the only one spice which is governed by auctions in India, cardamom economy is under stress now for there is no harmonisation of interests. There always is a rift between the farmer and the trader over issues of bidding prices, alleged re-pooling and stage managing of bidding. This undesirable state of affairs have been straining the smooth functioning of the trade and in fact it is chocking the trade and commerce in cardamom.  The mushrooming of local organisations in the name of cardamom farmers and traders are also strangulating   the execution of reforms for the betterment of the trade. 

 

The system of auctioning of  cardamom that is in vogue  under the mandate of the Cardamom Licensing and Marketing Rules of 1987 has been a platform for fixing of prices.  The very existence of cardamom auctions is now at stake due to the tendency of stake holders to boycott auctions even for a minor cause.  The local issues on political, social and  religious matters often cripple the working of the auction centres.  The rapid multiplication of unions that get formed from village to village in the cardamom growing district of Idukki is yet another undesirable feature.  Settling of disputes takes longer period of time than required and ultimately the fortune of the small and medium level trader is at stake.

The reforms that got implemented in streamlining the cardamom trading system are not found acknowledged or made full use by a section of stake holders. The setting of Spices Park, doing away with the open public outcry bid system in cardamom, introduction of the electronic cardamom auction centres, special promotion drive for cardamom to expand domestic market consumption done at the official levels are the organised changes in the industry. The inputs for cardamom replantation, rejuvenation, irrigation and curing house support etc have contributed to the rise in production of cardamom also. Production of cardamom has gone up from 9450 tonnes in 2007-08 to nearly 12,975 tonnes in the region. Returns to the farmers have also shown rise as could be understood from the unit value realisation of Rs 315.41 per kg in 2006-07 to Rs 645.62 per kg.

 

As one looks at the trade routes, many world destinations have got the opportunity to buy Indian cardamom. Normans first introduced cardamom into England in the 11th century. Imports into Europe happened during the 17th century. The Dutch, Portuguese and the British too had bought from India.  In the modern day markets, countries in the West Asian region like Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates are strong buyers for Indian cardamom. 

The bottleneck in enhancing the global market share is the quality of cardamom exported.  Like the physical appearance and the size of the pods and the colour, the inert quality also matters a lot. The levels of cleanliness and hygiene, pesticide residues, oil content are the economic and quality parameters that require immediate attention.  A product that confirms to all these challenges will surely fetch a ready acceptance for this green pod has all the virtues of the nature that human life wants.