LARGE CARDAMOM

Product Description

Large cardamom, known as the queen of spices, is all set to take to the e-auction route in the Northeast for the first time in the country.

The e-auctions will be done by North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (NERAMAC), which has been conducting manual auctions for large cardamom in Sikkim for the past 5 years. Auctions for large cardamom in the country have been held only in Sikkim so far.

"The biggest and most important hurdle that the large cardamom farmers are facing is that there is a limited number of buyers which hinders the marketing avenues in all aspects be it price, quality and information. The e-auction concept will provide large cardamom stakeholders with scope for roping in more buyers from all over the country," S Bhattacharjee, Executive Director, Neramac told The Telegraph. He said this will facilitate farmers in getting value for their produce, increasing business turnover and generating margin.

Quoting the Indian horticulture database, ******4, Bhattacharjee said the share of the Northeast in the country's production of large cardamom is ****0%. Sikkim, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh produce large amounts of cardamom in the Northeast.

One of the biggest benefits of e-auction is price transparency and preventing buyers from forming trade cartels.

He said the technical expertise is being provided by C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) and should be ready soon. It will have a centralised web-based server in the Guwahati office which will be linked with Sikkim to start with, followed by Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. Training is being imparted to handle e-auctions.

Right now, there are ****0 buyers/exporters from Sikkim and Darjeeling associated with NERAMAC for manual auction of large cardamom besides a few from other states.

At present, farmers are fetching a price of Rs 1,**0 per kg for their produce through auction.

A parliamentary panel has also recommended that the proposed e-auction centres be established at the earliest to ensure better and timely returns for the producers. Also, the Ministry must ensure that such e-auction centres must be spread throughout the region and a centralised e-auction may be devised to ensure a wider market for the growers.

"The market for large cardamom is very wide in the country. While it is commonly used as a flavouring spice in many Indian dishes, it also has a number of health benefits," he said.

Its oil is extracted from black cardamom seeds and is used for a number of health and beauty purposes. It is commonly used for massages as it immediately helps relieve mental strain as well as stress.

The official said other items like ginger, turmeric, bay leaf, black pepper can also be taken up phase-wise through e-auction later once the large cardamom gets operational.

The corporation got the GI registration for large cardamom this year.
 

Large cardamom, known as the queen of spices, is all set to take to the e-auction route in the Northeast for the first time in the country.

The e-auctions will be done by North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (NERAMAC), which has been conducting manual auctions for large cardamom in Sikkim for the past 5 years. Auctions for large cardamom in the country have been held only in Sikkim so far.

"The biggest and most important hurdle that the large cardamom farmers are facing is that there is a limited number of buyers which hinders the marketing avenues in all aspects be it price, quality and information. The e-auction concept will provide large cardamom stakeholders with scope for roping in more buyers from all over the country," S Bhattacharjee, Executive Director, Neramac told The Telegraph. He said this will facilitate farmers in getting value for their produce, increasing business turnover and generating margin.

Quoting the Indian horticulture database, ******4, Bhattacharjee said the share of the Northeast in the country's production of large cardamom is ****0%. Sikkim, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh produce large amounts of cardamom in the Northeast.

One of the biggest benefits of e-auction is price transparency and preventing buyers from forming trade cartels.

He said the technical expertise is being provided by C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) and should be ready soon. It will have a centralised web-based server in the Guwahati office which will be linked with Sikkim to start with, followed by Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. Training is being imparted to handle e-auctions.

Right now, there are ****0 buyers/exporters from Sikkim and Darjeeling associated with NERAMAC for manual auction of large cardamom besides a few from other states.

At present, farmers are fetching a price of Rs 1,**0 per kg for their produce through auction.

A parliamentary panel has also recommended that the proposed e-auction centres be established at the earliest to ensure better and timely returns for the producers. Also, the Ministry must ensure that such e-auction centres must be spread throughout the region and a centralised e-auction may be devised to ensure a wider market for the growers.

"The market for large cardamom is very wide in the country. While it is commonly used as a flavouring spice in many Indian dishes, it also has a number of health benefits," he said.

Its oil is extracted from black cardamom seeds and is used for a number of health and beauty purposes. It is commonly used for massages as it immediately helps relieve mental strain as well as stress.

The official said other items like ginger, turmeric, bay leaf, black pepper can also be taken up phase-wise through e-auction later once the large cardamom gets operational.

The corporation got the GI registration for large cardamom this year.