Spices Board will empower farmers to play a part in the futures market through active participation in the spices park, board chairman VJ Kurian said. The proposed spices parks in various parts of the nation will have warehousing facilities and could inculcate the habit of warehousing receipts and trade, he said.The board is also thinking of asking the commodity exchanges to invest and be part of the various parks.
Farmers will have the option of storing their commodities in the warehouses and the receipts can be used to get credit until he manages to sell at the desired price, Kurian said. Spices Board is setting up parks in major producing centres to bring in value addition to move up the value chain.
?The idea is to provide common facilities and give an encouragement to value addition,? he said. Bulk of the spice exported from the nation is taken out as whole spices and later processed and packed abroad before retailing.
?If we can process, pack and brand the spices in India, the revenue realised would be tremendous,? he said. Given the labour cost and skill available in India, the outsourcing opportunity for big retailers like McCormick is huge, he added. ?We hope to increase spices exports from the nation to $10 billion by the year 2017 from the present $1 billion through value addition,? Kurian said.
The board is setting up parks in Guntur (chilli), Chindwara (garlic and Chilli), Meghalaya (organic turmeric and ginger), Rajasthan (seed spices), MP (mint spices), and Idukki (pepper and cardamom).