Out of the three Spice Parks planned to be set up in the country, two will come up at Kota in Rajasthan and Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh in a year's time. However, the one planned near Unjha may take loner time and the Board is awaiting the state government's decision on land allocation for the same. It has asked for 20 acres of land from the state government to set up the Park.
"We want to set up the Spice Park preferably closer to Unjha, which is the largest seed spices trading market. The Spice Park will have common facilities like cleaning, sorting and labelling etc that will benefit the small and medium spice traders from the region," said A Jayathilak, chairman, Spices Board India, on the sidelines of the 13th World Spice Congress 2016 here.
The total project cost is estimated to be around Rs. 20 crore except the land cost. Already six such Spice Parks are operational in the country with focus on region-specific spices.
Also, the Board has set up Spices Development Agency (SDA) at Unjha for the seed spices - cumin seed (jeera), fenugreek seeds (methi), coriander seeds (dhana) and fennel seeds. Out of India's spices exports of about Rs. 15,000-16,000 crore, seed spices exports value at around Rs. 3,000 crore, of which 90 per cent is produced in Gujarat.
SDA will look into the coordination between State and Central Agencies for development of production and marketing of the seed spices found in and around Gujarat. "It would help farmers adopt better farming practices, processing and packaging methods as per the international standards. This will fetch better value of their produce in the international market," said Jayathilak.
Earlier Jayathilak had announced setting up of regional quality analysis lab at Kandla in Kutch - first for Gujarat. "This will link the entire chain of spice from production to quality testing and exports," he said.
Source : Business Line