1 PRODUCTION, TRADE AND CONSUMPTION

Nearly 70 years ago cardamom cultivation spread from India to Guatemala. But, India
continued to be the largest producer until 197980. The situation has since been
changed and Guatemala emerged as worlds leading cardamom producer and supplier.
While Indian production in the last two decades has shown a fluctuating trend,
Guatemalas production has been on steady increase except in the last two years. The
production of cardamom in India and Guatemala, for 12 years from 19902002, is
given in Table 13.1 (See also Chapter 11).
World production of cardamom during 198081 was around 10,250 tons; in
199091 the production was 16,000 tons; in 20002001 the production was around
22,800 tons and 25,000 tons in 20012002, the highest so far recorded.
India has been the largest exporter of cardamom till 198081. The world market has
been Indias monopoly till Guatemalan production picked up. Practically with no
domestic demand, almost the entire production of Guatemala is exported. In India,
cardamom is an important spice and consumed in many households. Due to well-
developed internal demand the price of cardamom in India is high. Often export is
not possible because of the comparatively low international price on account of the
steady supply position from Guatemala. Export of cardamom from India and
Guatemala for 10 years since 199091 is given in Table 13.2.
India and Saudi Arabia are the largest consumers of cardamom. These two countries
together require more than 50 per cent of the worlds cardamom production. As
cardamom is produced in India in sufficient quantities, import is not encouraged by the
government to protect the domestic industry. The quantity of cardamom consumed in
India and Saudi Arabia in the last 11 years is given in Table 13.3.
Saudi Arabia imports its entire requirements from Guatemala. Other important
importing countries are Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, UAE, USA, Japan, Russia, Singapore,
UK, Germany and Scandinavian countries such as Sweden, Finland, Norway and
Denmark. The maximum per capita consumption of cardamom is in Saudi Arabia
where it is used in the preparation of the traditional drink Gahwa. This drink is also
popular in Kuwait, Muscat and Doha. It is reported that Gahwa normally contains
30 per cent of cardamom and the rest coffee powder. It is seen that, sometimes, the ratio
of cardamom seed and coffee goes up to 50:50 or even up to 60:40. Gahwa is enjoyed
mainly by old and conservative people in the Middle East countries (Sahadevan
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C.K. George
2002 Taylor & Francis
Table 13.1 Cardamom production in India and Guatemala (Qty. in tons)
Year India Guatemala
199091 4750 11,500
199192 5000 11,120
199293 4250 13,500
199394 6600 13,500
199495 7000 14,200
199596 7900 15,300
199697 6625 17,000
199798 7900 15,000
199899 7170 13,000
19992000 9330 10,000
20002001 10,480 11,800
20012002 11,365 13,500
Sources: India estimates by Spices Board, Guatemala FAO, Rome, Embassy of India in
Mexico.
Table 13.2 Export of cardamom from India and Guatemala (Qty. in tons)
Year India Guatemala
199091 400 11,114
199192 544 13,163
199293 190 13,000
199394 387 13,000
199495 257 14,000
199596 527 15,000
199697 226 14,500
199798 297 14,500
199899 476 12,000
19992000 646 8,536
20002001 1100 NA
Sources: India DGCI&S, Calcutta/Shipping bills/Exporters returns. Guatemala: up to 199192
Banco De Guatemala and from 199293 estimates based on past trends.
1965). Similarly cardamom tea is also popular in Middle East as well as in India
(Anonymous, 1952).
In India, cardamom is consumed not only in households, but also in industrial units
and institutions. A survey conducted by the Spices Board of India on the use of cardamom
in India during 1996 shows its manifold applications (Anonymous, 1997a). But the main
purpose behind the use of cardamom is attributable to its cool and refreshing aroma with
pleasant and sweet taste. Use of cardamom in Indian households is mainly for prepara-
tions like sweets, payasam, pulav, biriyani, meat dishes, flavoured tea/milk and as a mouth
freshener. Cardamom is also used in many home-made medicines. The average household
consumption covering both urban and rural population is about 35 g/year. The household
consumption is estimated to grow at an annual compound growth rate of 3.7 per cent and
attain the level of 6150 tons by 2000 AD (George and John, 1998).
Though total consumption is less, industrial units are the bulk consumers of cardamom
in India. Their preparations comprise of pan masala, other masala products, herbal medi-
cines, tobacco products, biscuits and similar items and cardamom oil. The demand from
the industry was around 2050 tons in 2000 AD at a growth rate of 15 per cent per annum.
Cardamom future vision 285
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286 C.K. George
Indian institutions consuming cardamom are hotels, restaurants, bakeries, sweet-meat
shops, pan-bide shops etc. The demand from this segment was increasing at the rate of 10
per cent per annum and reached 1250 tons in 2000 AD. The total demand for cardamom
in India under different segments is thus expected to be around 9500 tons in 2000 AD
registering a compound growth rate of 6 per cent per annum.
A number of measures have been undertaken in India for widening the demand base.
The Regional Research Laboratory, Trivandrum and the Central Food Technological
Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore have taken up studies for developing new products
from cardamom. The Indian Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad has also conducted a
study on its nutritional and medicinal values. The Ayurveda College, Trivandrum has
carried out a study on the use of cardamom for developing Ayurvedic medicines for var-
ious common ailments. The Arya Vaidya Sala, Kottakkal has conducted studies on the
effect of cardamom-based soaps on human skin (George and John, 1998).
The Spices Board of India has been in contact with manufacturers of various food
products for promoting the use of cardamom. Certain manufacturers have begun to use
cardamom flavour in their products while many have conducted tests to assess the suit-
ability of cardamom oil as a flavouring agent in their products. As a result, a variety
of new end products using cardamom flavour have been launched in the market such
as cardamom-flavoured biscuits, toffee, flan and tea powder and cardamom-flavoured
concentrates (George and John, 1998; Joseph and George, 1998).
2 INTERNATIONAL PRICE
In foreign markets the prices of Indian and Guatemalan cardamom are quoted regularly.
Prices of Indian cardamom have always been higher than Guatemalan cardamom due to
better quality, strong domestic demand for the former and comparatively higher cost of
production. A study indicated that prices have been fluctuating too much in the interna-
tional market. During the last 8 years while the record price of Indian cardamom in the
Middle East market was in 199495 at US$ 17.39, for a comparable grade of Guatemalan
cardamom in the same market for the same period was only US$ 7.66 per kg. The prices
Table 13.3 Consumption of cardamom in India and Saudi Arabia (Qty. in tons)
Year India Saudi Arabia*
1990 4350 5272
1991 4456 6639
1992 4060 6000
1993 6213 3853
1994 6743 2709
1995 7373 7488
1996 6399 8524
1997 7603 7603
1998 6694 6569
1999 8684 6249
2000 9380 6628
Sources: Spices Board of India; 19902000 UN Statistics.
Note
* Based on import statistics.
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Cardamom future vision 287
of Guatemalan and Indian cardamom in the Middle East market obtained from the
International Trade Centre, Geneva are given in Table 13.4.
Table 13.4 Price of cardamom (Bold Green/Bold) in the Middle East market (US $/kg)
Year Guatemala (Bold Green/Bold) India
199495 7.66 17.39
199596 6.33 9.58
199697 5.69 10.31
199798 4.79 12.02
199899 9.17 13.65
19992000 13.10 13.96
20002001 17.14 16.14
20012002 14.92 16.58
Source: Market News Service, International Trade Centre, Geneva.
Guatemalan prices were less than half of Indian cardamom prices in certain years.
There is no domestic demand for this commodity in Guatemala and in a good year of
production market forces pull down the export prices. Very low cost of production, lack
of understanding among exporters and non-existence of a regulatory authority for car-
damom marketing as in India are other factors attributed to lower price of Guatemalan
cardamom in international market (Anonymous, 1997a,b). But the price differences
have been eroded in the recent years.
3 POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS
The future of any commodity depends upon the present and potential uses. Being
a weak flavourant, cardamom has no strength to substitute other natural flavours like
vanilla. But its certain uses especially as mouth freshener, flavouring biscuits, tea and
soft drinks are likely to spread to many countries. In India, many people prefer to use
cardamom seeds as an excellent mouth freshener to novelties like chewing gum.
Though cardamom seed has no chewing-gum properties, because of its mild exciting
taste and acceptable smell, the habit of chewing cardamom is becoming popular in
many parts of India. Promotional efforts of the Spices Board of India even go to the
extent of using it as a substitute for cigarette and beedi smoking. In cola drinks, the
aroma of cardamom is highly acceptable and the testing of consumer preference for
cardamom-flavoured cola in the capital of India has been positive (Anonymous, 1996).
Medicinal value of cardamom has not been fully studied in any country. If at all some
work has been done, it is in India. Ayurveda is the oldest traditional system of medicine
in India, as old as Vedas, which mentions the use of cardamom in certain medicinal
preparations. It is a stimulant as well as carminative. Ayurvedic formulations contain-
ing cardamom is found to be effective against cough and cold. Body massage oil for
head, based on cardamom has been found very soothing. But unfortunately much of
the known medicinal uses of cardamom are still to be exploited commercially
(Anonymous, 1952, Sahadevan, 1965).
At present consumption of cardamom in developed countries such as USA, Canada,
UK, Germany, Netherlands, France and Japan is negligible. The total consumption in
these countries does not exceed 1000 tons per annum. In the present trend of the
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288 C.K. George
movement of people to various countries as tourists or job seekers, the demand for
ethnic foods is going up. Cardamom having cool and refreshing aroma and pleasant and
sweet taste, the food prepared by adding it is likely to become more acceptable to more
people in the coming years. However, certain amount of promotional work in the devel-
oped countries will increase the demand for cardamom products.
4 FUTURE OUTLOOK
4.1 Research and development
For successful cultivation of any crop a strong research back up is essential. Cardamom
is no exception, as this crop is facing a variety of production constraints, such as
drought susceptibility, virus diseases, fungal diseases, changes in the agro-ecological
habitat etc. (Nair et al., 1989). For production and productivity enhancement con-
straint alleviation together with genetic upgradation and high production technology
play important roles. Research efforts in these areas can surely do wonders in pushing
up the productivity of cardamom. A quantum jump in productivity should be achieved
for India to compete in the global market (Anonymous, 1988).
Being a shade-loving plant, its production physiology may be different from other
zingiberacious plants. Little is known about the production physiological aspects.
Productivity increase can be best achieved by genetic upgradation through new gene
combinations and heterosis breeding and subsequent production of hybrid seeds.
Production of genetically homozygous lines for heterosis breeding is thus an urgent
need. Hence an area of great importance is the production of haploids and dihaploids
for hybrid seed production. This step itself can revolutionize cardamom production.
An intensive search is required to locate heat and drought tolerant lines. Heat and
drought susceptibility is the most serious production constraint facing cardamom
cultivation in India. Once this is achieved, then incorporation of such resistance in elite
genotypes can be achieved utilizing the conventional breeding or the haploid
dihaploid hybrid system.
Resistance to biotic stress factors especially the virus diseases is again extremely
important in pushing up productivity. Survey for natural disease escapes in hotspot areas,
their screening and evaluation has led to some katte and rhizome rot resistant lines in
IISR, some of which are high yielding too. These lines can be exploited for the time
being for planting-material production. At the same time the agronomically superior
lines have to be subjected to molecular breeding for production of transgenics incorpor-
ating katte virus resistance either through coat protein mediated resistance or otherwise.
The human society is becoming more and more health conscious and as a result the
use of agrochemicals is being discouraged in many crops. The organically grown prod-
ucts are slowly gaining importance at least in the developed countries. A ten-fold
increase in consumption is predicted in a few years time. To catch up with this world
trend a re-orientation in spices production technology is needed. Much research is
needed to identify varieties suitable for organic farming and to streamline the production
technology for this purpose.
Genetic engineering is going to revolutionize the future agriculture in a way that
mankind has never seen before. This is going to be true of cardamom as well. The future
may well witness the creation of super cardamom plants in yield, resistance to biotic
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Cardamom future vision 289
and abiotic stress and quality. New uses, novel products etc. may lead to greater
demand for this noble spice necessitating higher production and productivity. Genetic
engineering can help achieving this. Tailoring of cardamom plants for tropical climate
(resistance to heat and drought) may well make this a crop of hot planes of South India.
In due course by using the modern research tools we may be able to create cardamom
plants many times superior to the present varieties in yield, quality and other
agronomic characters.
4.2 Demand, production and consumption
Till now world demand has been increasing commensurate with the growth in
production, and due to this there has been no slump in world market and entire
production is consumed in the same year without much left over. In the last 15 years
world production has increased almost 2
1
/
2
times and similarly consumption also.
During this period the industry has grown many fold benefiting all those who are
involved in production, processing and marketing.
It is difficult to predict the future of any non-essential agricultural produce having
limited use. However, it appears that cardamom has somewhat a bright future. But any
substantial jump in production by any country in a short period will upset the
demandsupply position. Such a situation may lead to severe price fall making
cardamom production uneconomical to farmers. A near situation of this kind has been
experienced in 199798 for Guatemalan cardamom when its production was at its peak
and price in the Middle East market was very low.
Though cardamom flavour and aroma are acceptable in many foods, consumption in
the developed countries such as USA, Japan, European nations, Australia and New
Zealand is very low. At present, the use of cardamom as raw material for its processed
forms such as oil and oleoresin will not exceed more than 1500 tons per annum in the
developed countries. This is mainly because no agency is making efforts to promote car-
damom in these countries. As cardamom is produced in developing countries and the
industry supports many small farmers, it is desirable to have propaganda and publicity
measures implemented for increasing its consumption especially when it is a safe produce
with medicinal values. There are a few well-reputed spice importers associations such as,
American Spice Trade Association (ASTA), European Spice Association (ESA) and All
Nippon Spice Association (ANSA), which can be approached for promotional work.
There are instances of pimento and black pepper; wherein producers and importers have
jointly took up programmes in the importing countries for increasing their consumption.
Such measures can be done fervently in the case of cardamom.
Other than in India there is very little or no consumption of cardamom worth men-
tioning in the producing countries. For sound development of agricultural industry,
local consumption is a safeguard, as international demand is highly fluctuating with
competition from other producing countries. Therefore, efforts are to be taken both in
traditional and non-traditional countries for promoting cardamom consumption. The
recent liberalization of imports of spices including cardamom into India paves the way
for large scale inflow of Guatemalan cardamom into India. This may in turn destabilize
the traditional cardamom production and can lead to the decline of cardamom industry.
On the other hand cardamom economy can become more competitive by reducing
production cost, increasing productivity, and through diversification of its uses (Joseph
and George, 1998).
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REFERENCES
Anonymous (1952) The Wealth of India. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New
Delhi.
Anonymous (1988) Economics of Cardamom Cultivation for Small Growers, Spices Board, Cochin.
Anonymous (1996) Report of the Expert Committee for Alternative Crops for Cardamom, Spices Board,
Cochin.
Anonymous (1997a) Market Study of Small Cardamom by Dalal Consultants and Engineers Ltd.,
Madras, Spices Board, Cochin.
Anonymous (1997b) Spices Statistics (3rd edn) Spices Board, Cochin.
George, C.K. and John, K. (1998) Future of Cardamom Industry in India. Spice India, 11(4), 4.
Spices Board, Cochin.
Joseph, K.J. and George, C.S. (1998) Promotional Measures for Cardamom Cultivation, Centre for
Development Studies, Trivandrum.
Nair, K.N. et al. (1989) Ecology and Economics in Cardamom Development, Centre for Development
Studies, Trivandrum.
Sahadevan, P.C. (1965) Cardamom. The Agricultural Information Service, Trivandrum, Kerala.
290 C.K. George
2002 Taylor & Francis