Commodity Online
KOCHI/UNJHA (Gujarat): Finally, Unjah, the jeera hub of Asia, will get a spices park. Spices Board officials said the bord will invest around Rs 10 crore to start a spices park at Unjah in Mehsana district.

The board expects various companies to invest around Rs 100 crore in the venture. The Gujarat government has already allotted land for the park.

In 2006-07, the Spices Board registered exports of 70,125 tonne of spices including cumin seeds, corriander, fenugreek, bishop’s weed and til seeds, which increased to 82,100 tonne in 2007-08.

In effect, export of seed spices increased from Rs 362 crore to Rs 507.75 crore in 2007-08. In terms of volume, seed spices exports increased 18% whereas in terms of value, it grew 11%.

In future, the board will stress on value addition of spices. To promote this idea, plans are afoot to set up Spice Parks in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

With the setting up of the park, farmers in Gujarat will have access to several utilities like cleaning, grading, sorting, washing, steam sterilisation, cool grinding, vacuum cleaning, packing and godown utilities for their produce.

Again, farmers will be able to get more money for their produce, since the valuation of spices will be higher.