9 Apr, 2012
India to Push Its Culinary Advantage, Establish 10 Spice Export Parks By End-2012
New Delhi, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, 08-April, 2012 – In a move that will further enhance the quality and popularity of Indian cuisine worldwide, the Spice Board of India, a unit of the Ministry of Commerce, will establish 10 spice parks across the country by end-2012. A total of Rs. 167 crores have been earmarked to invest in the spices parks in an effort to promote exports of Indian spices such as cumin and coriander.
Of this figure, Rs. 75 crores are already invested in three completed spice parks in Chhihdwara in MP, Puttady in Kerala and in Jodhpur. The other parks will be completed during the year in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Kota in Rajasthan.
The Board has completed the construction of a Spice Park in Rampura Bhatia Village of Ozian Tehsil near Jodhpur in an area of 60-acres provided by the Rajasthan Government. The park in Jodhpur was inaugurated by Mr. Anand Sharma, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Mr. Ashok Gehlot, Chief Minister of Rajasthan. The park has common infrastructure and processing facilities for the seed spices especially cumin and coriander.
A public private partnership is ensured with 17 exporters planning to set up state of the art processing lines, cold storage facilities and facilities to produce oils and oleoresins from seed spices. The machineries are capable of processing other seed spices like fennel and fenugreek, which are quite ample in this region.
In accordance with international standards, a full line processing facility has been installed with a capacity to turn out two tonnes per hour, using inbuilt facilities for pre-cleaning, grading, colour sorting, grinding and packing. The higher end processing plants installed includes pre-cleaning, grading, colour sorting, grinding and both bulk and consumer packing ranging from 100 g to 50 Kg.
The Board is establishing a sterilization facility within the plant building with a capacity of 250 Kg per hour in batch process. The Board will also be allotting individual slots for exporters on lease basis for developing their own processing plants in the Parks. There was tremendous response from the exporters who wanted to set up their own facilities in the Park.
The Spices Board has set up other common infrastructures like Compound wall, Road, Drains, Water Distribution system, Power Station, Weighing Bridge, Common parking area, Truck yard, Warehouses, preliminary Quality Testing facility, Bank counter, Training center, Conference Hall, Canteen facilities, Bank and Customs clearance within the Parks.
To ensure storing of raw materials for processing and to take care of the processed materials, the Parks will have warehouses exclusively devoted for various seed spices separately. Two Raw Material Warehouses with a storage capacity of 800 sq mtr each are devoted for Coriander while two other warehouses for other seed spices have a storing capacity of 800 sq mtrs each.
The Board’s regional and zonal offices will start functioning from the Spices Parks with more orientation towards the spice-growing villages.
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