By Radhakrishna Bhat N.S. & Rakesh Neelakandan
India may have to wait some more time before Madagascar pepper variety could be cultivated here.
India may have to wait some more time before Madagascar pepper variety could be cultivated here.
“It requires authorisation from concerned authorities, said Dr.A.Jayathilak, IAS, Chairman of Spices Board India to Commodity Online. “We need sufficient approvals before we can bring a foreign variety to India.”
He was speaking at the sidelines of a session organised by “Collaborative Training Centre”, a joint initiative by Spices Board, Confederation of Indian Industries-FACE, and USFDA-JIFSAN (The Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition/USFDA or US Food and Drug Administration).
He said that Africa is an emerging destination for spices from India. “Spices Board is taking part in trade-fares in various parts in Africa.” he added. “Markets in US, EU have already saturated.”
He also said that contamination by virtue of Aflatoxin and Sudan Dye have become things of past.
Replanting efforts in pepper in Kerala is yet to bear fruits and according to Jayathilak is “too early to be commented.”
India, being the third largest producer of black pepper in the world, witnessed fall in its production in recent years due to various domestic factors like old and less yielding varieties, fall in the total area of cultivation and others. The average productivity of Indian pepper had fallen drastically from above 300 kg per ha to 260 hectare.
However, Madagascar black pepper variety can yield four times more than our Indian black pepper - say experts.
On the other hand, Indian pepper farmers fear that import of such high yielding pepper varieties may end the scope of pepper due to fall in the prices. Farmers also say that imported Madagascar varieties can't give the quality of India's own domestic pepper.
Collaborative Training CentreThe Collaborative Training Centre for Food Safety and Supply Chain Management in spices/botanical ingredients the first of its kind in India is being set up to facilitate capacity building and developing product specific testing procedures in the said sector.
Spices Board and CII-FACE along with JIFSAN has established the centre and seeks to bring about harmonisation of standards across board.
The first phase of the training commenced in Cochin on Monday and was attended by over 60 officials and delegates from about 50 organisations representing both the government and NGO sectors, comprising of processors, traders and exporters.
A MoU or Memorandum of Understanding was signed on the occasion by Dr.A.Jayathilak, Sujith Haridas, Regional Head, South CII, Dr. Indrani Ghose, Principal Counsellor, CII and James Wayne Rushing, Manager, International Training Program JIFSAN.
The second phase of the project, a two-week training session for selected delegates will be held in USA. In the third phase, participants attending phase II would be involved in a series of workshops and training programs in different regions of India.
The center would also strengthen the supply chain management of spices and botanical ingredients for both domestic and international trade.
It will provide technical support to organisations through training, creating information sharing platforms and providing technical consultancy to organisations selected by the board, in the upgradation of their manufacturing, processing facilities, quality control assurance system, implementing hygiene and food safety management system.
No comments:
Post a Comment