Cardamom

Productivity which was more or less stagnant around 50 kg./ha. in the 1980s has improved to the level of around 203 kg. per ha by 2001 and increased slightly to 206 kg/ha in 2008-09 and declined to 188 Kg/ha in 2009-10. The share of Kerala in production at the all India level increased from 28 per cent in 1992-93 to 56 per cent in 2008-09.

While area under cardamom in the country has declined from 0.97 lakh ha to 0.73 lakh ha. in the period, in Kerala it has come down from 65,000 ha to 41593 ha. On the export front cardamom has been facing competition from Guatemala although the quality of Guatemala cardamom is inferior.

The country could tide over the challenge by expanding domestic market through market promotion. The average price during 2000-01 was ` 570 per kg. which is declined to ` 463.14 in 2007-08 and improved to `506.44 in 2008-09 and `800.08 in 2009-10. The Indian export of cardamom has increased from early nineties and reached a peak level of 1545 MT in 2000-01 and then increased by 27.8 percent in 2009-10 to reach 1975 MT. The unit price of exported Cardamom increased steadily to ` 838 per kg. in 2009-10 from ` 630 per kg. in 2008-09.