News

June 18, 2008

India's Spice Exports Should Touch $10 Billion Mark By 2017, Says Minister

By TC Malhotra in New Delhi

India’s spices exports, which hit the US$1 billion mark in the 2007-08 agricultural season, should touch US$10 billion by 2017, according to Mr Jairam Ramesh, a junior minister for commerce in the Indian government.

The minister, who was delivering the presidential address during a New Delhi function to celebrate the Spices Board’s ‘Awards for Excellence in Production & Export of Spices’, said that during the past five years the growth rate for spice exports has been 13 per cent per year in dollar terms, but added that this would have to rise to 20 per cent per year for the country to achieve the target of US$10 billion.

In regard to the setting up of spice parks, the minister said these parks were...