Syria crisis fuels jeera exports from India

AHMEDABAD: The ongoing crisis in Syria has prompted cumin seed (jeera) importers to turn to India, especially Gujarat, to source the commodity. The jeera exports from the country in 2014-15 were 55% higher than the target set for the year. Higher demand and lower prices also aided to the growth in jeera export.
As per the data available with the Spices Board of India, India's jeera exports stood at 1.55 lakh tonnes in 2014-15, while the target for the year was set at 1 lakh tonnes.
"Syria is our major competitor in jeera export market. Due to the growing threat of ISIS and ongoing crisis in Syria, buyers chose to import from India fuelling the export of the commodity in 2014-15," said Bhaskar Shah, vice-chairman, Spices Board of India.
Gujarat and Rajasthan account for almost 90% of the total jeera produced in the country. Jeera production in 2014-15 was estimated to be around 2.5 lakh tonnes as against 4 lakh tonnes in the previous year.
Apart from India, Syria and Turkey are other major producers of jeera. "The sowing and production of jeera suffered heavily due to the turmoil in Syria. Also, importers are treading cautiously while dealing with Syrian exporters. As a result, countries like Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore and Sri Lanka looked at India for meeting their jeera requirements," added an exporter from Unjha, a top jeera trading hub in Asia. Syria exports around 20,000 tonnes annually.
Other factors responsible for increased export of the spice seed were higher demand and lower prices. The prices of the commodity were hovering around Rs 2,400 per 20 kg last year. "Many countries created stocks of jeera as the prices were lower. This further added to the exports," said the Unjha exporter.
The overseas buying spiked the prices of jeera in 2015-16 and the prices are now being quoted at Rs 3,300 per 20 kg. "Higher prices affected the exports in the first quarter, which saw 27,000 tonnes of jeera being exported as against 49,000 tonnes in the same quarter last year," added Bhaskar Shah.