Date:07/06/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/06/07/stories/2005060700891000.htm

Back `Flavourit' brand spices sales top Rs 10 lakh

G.K. Nair

"The highest demand has emanated from Gujarat followed by Kerala, where the visiting tourists have been the main buyers."

Kochi , June 6

THE demand for `Flavourit' brand of spices launched by the Spices Board in March last, is slowly picking up with the sales crossing Rs 3 lakh as on May 20. Total sales during the year is expected to cross Rs 10 lakh.

After the launch of the e-marketing of superior quality organic pepper and cardamom, 1,500 packets of 250 g each of these commodities have been sold.

Organic Tellichery garbled extra bold (TGEB) pepper and cardamom are being marketed as "Gift packets". According to Mr S. Kannan, Director (Marketing), Spices Board, the sales would pick up during the festival season starting with Diwali in November.

The highest demand has emanated from Gujarat followed by Kerala, where the visiting tourists have been the main buyers, he said.

The Board has introduced the "Flavourit" brand of spices as an attempt to re-establish their identity and get for our spice growers a fair share of the value realised in the spices trade. He said the quality of the product was assured by the board, while the marketing was done by Spices Trading Corporation Ltd.

It also aims at providing marketing channel for growers of cardamom, vanilla and pepper and more particularly to those who have taken up organic production of spices with encouragement of the board.

Surpluses generated from the business would be ploughed back in promoting the demand for these and other Indian spices worldwide.

In the process, "we hope to establish the identity of Indian vanilla, a recent introduction of an exotic spice hitherto confined to the Bourbon and some other islands of Polynesia to the Indian soil".

He said Flavourit brand of was of gourmet quality, non-split pods, 15 cm or more long, whole, sound, supple and full of typical flavour, of uniform dark, chocolate brown to reddish colour and without any stain.

Moisture content would not exceed 38 per cent and vanillin content not less than 1.75 per cent. The idea behind this venture is also aimed at establishing the identity of the once popular Indian spice grades such as TGEB pepper and Alleppy green extra bold (AGEB) cardamom.

The Board's effort to sell value-added Indian spices in the US markets is in the process of yielding positive results. The samples were expected to be cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a week's time, he told Business Line.