Spice route: Tackle barriers faced by India’s turmeric exports
- We need an action plan to secure our leadership in the global market for various spices. Our spice exports get rejected by importing-country authorities too often. Here’s what should be done.
India is the ‘Spice Bowl of the World.’ From 2010-11 to 2023-24, spice exports tripled, from 575,000 metric tonnes (MT) to 1.54 million MT. Among these spices, the recent growth and dominance of India’s golden spice, turmeric, stands out.
As of 2022-23, India had 324,000 hectares under turmeric cultivation, producing 1.16 million tonnes, which accounted for over 75% of its global production.
While in the past turmeric was primarily used in food, dyes and traditional medicine, and for religious purposes, with the development of newer avenues like its use in nutraceutical industries, demand for turmeric with high curcumin content that meets the phytosanitary standards of importing countries has also risen.
Since 2017 till 2023, India has been the largest exporter of a number of spices, turmeric included. According to the ministry of commerce and industry, India exported over 154,000 tonnes of turmeric and its products worth $207.45 million in 2022-23.
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The government projects turmeric exports to reach $1 billion by 2030. Major markets for Indian turmeric include the US (with a 20% share), followed by Bangladesh, Iran and the UAE.
Although our position looks secure in both the production and export of spices like turmeric, the country faces challenges on both the demand and supply side.
Demand from developed countries like the Netherlands and Germany has waned as they meet more needs domestically. These countries are becoming large exporters of turmeric within the EU.
As for supply, there has been a rise in competition from small nations like Fiji (the fourth-largest turmeric exporter in 2022-23) and countries like Myanmar, Vietnam and Indonesia, which were among the top 10 exporters of turmeric during 2017-2023.
Additionally, in India, the share of turmeric in total production and area under cultivation of all spices has fallen from 11% to 8.3% and 7.6% to 6.3%, respectively, between 2021-22 and 2022-23. While spice exports can be lucrative for farmers, helping increase their income, the fall in area under cultivation is a cause for concern as this is one of our key export items.
Spice exports must hold up: A major challenge for Indian spice exports are rejections faced in key markets on phytosanitary grounds, such as the presence of toxins and higher than permissible maximum residue limits (MRL), and adulteration. Earlier this year, Singapore and Hong Kong banned a few branded spice mixes that India was exporting.
These issues persist even after the establishment of multiple quality control bodies like the Spices Board of India and the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, responsible for overseeing laboratory testing, certification and inspection. While exporters incur high costs to get their products certified for export, their overseas markets cannot be called secure.
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Take the example of turmeric. Between 2019 and 2024, Indian consignments faced 16 rejections in the EU alone, of which 12 were labelled as “serious" public health threats. These threats are those which are characterized by significantly higher contamination levels than the standard norms, with recurrent breaches.
These rejections were due to the presence of ethylene oxide (a designated human carcinogen) in six cases, chlorpyrifos (a type of insecticide) in two cases and salmonella (a type of bacterium) in two others, to name some. During 2017-24, our turmeric exports faced 42 rejections in the US, primarily for failing to pass checks for the absence of salmonella and other harmful substances.
As exports go through export checks, such rejections may be due to gaps in the process of testing and certification, lack of supply chain traceability, the use of harmful pesticides in fields, or insufficient knowledge among suppliers of what importing countries require.
These requirements vary. For example, although the American Spice Trade Association has approved ethylene oxide as an antimicrobial fumigant, the EU has banned it.
How we must secure our leadership in spice exports: It is time for India to do a detailed evaluation of the spices supply chain, identify quality gaps and find ways to minimize rejections. To begin with, there should be a single regulatory body with monitoring and controlling powers to ensure high-quality laboratory testing and product traceability before spices are exported.
Exporters and their value chain partners should comply with Good Agriculture Practices, a voluntary programme, apart from norms set by the International Organization for Standardization and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. Additionally, key stakeholders, such as policymakers, traders, corporations and processors, need to be on a common platform to coordinate efforts.
Events such as the World Spice Congress and Global Turmeric Conference have served as platforms to showcase our products and facilitate business-to-business commerce. However, these events should also be used for knowledge sharing on importing-country requirements and capacity building.
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India should focus on signing mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) for the harmonization of standards for spices. The recent MRA for organic products signed between India and Taiwan in 2024 is an example of this approach.
The country should also engage in discussions for trade facilitation and push for harmonized testing and certification standards for processors of spices in its trade agreements with key partners.
These are the authors’ personal views.
