This is a
report on India’s spice sector, based on a policy brief by ICRIER (Indian
Council for Research on International Economic Relations).
It states possibilities of India’s domestic
spice market more than doubling from $5.15 billion in 2025 to over $13 billion
by 2034, if certain key regulatory gaps are addressed.
Main
issues with Indian markets highlighted in the report:
●Lack
in Quality Standards: Even as India produces around 75 varieties of spices, but
the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) only has prescribed
standards for only 45 of them.
●Conflicting
safety guidelines by BIS and FSSAI that often overlap.
●Different
laboratories use different testing methods, producing different results. This
raises compliance costs.
●The FSSAI only regulates spices after they are processed, while
pesticides are used at the farm level. This late detection results in poor
quality. The FSSAI standards on pesticides apply only from the post-production
stage – not before that.
●Poor
post-harvest storage facilities resulting in damage and deterioration in
quality.
●MSMEs suffer. 60% to 80% of the entire spice market operates
in the informal (unorganized) sector. Even as the Govt is taking steps to
formalise the sector, the formal spices sector is growing below its potential
due to several structural issues that are preventing MSMEs from transitioning
to the organised market.
Suggested
solutions:
●The
policy brief suggested setting up a single nodal centralized government agency.
It will watch over the entire supply chain, from the farm all the way to the
retail shelf. For that, better coordination needed between FSSAI and state
governments to establish and uniformly enforce farm-level food safety
standards, while aligning India's domestic standards with global benchmarks.
●Standardized
testing was also recommended to reduce inconsistencies in results and lower
compliance costs.
An
FSSAI representative did however mention that the authority is working closely
with Codex to align its standards with global benchmarks.
Spices
Boards:
There
is a need to look at the roles and responsibilities of the Boards. The Spice
board exists on the basis of a statute, a law passed by the Parliament.
Issues with Spice Board:
●Nearly
80% of their budget goes into salaries. Very little left for research,
development and other activities.
●Bureaucratic
behaviour of staff where staff focus more on promotions and career stagnation schemes
(MACPs - Modified Assured Career Progression) than on driving the industry
forward.
●A few years back, the Department of Expenditure had tried to push for moving
the Boards from DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade)
to the Agriculture Ministry for better alignment with agricultural practices. But
then, it was not seen as feasible as none wanted to move out of their comfort
zones.
●Decisions about restructuring or hiving off boards (like trying to
create a separate Turmeric Board in Hyderabad) too were led more by politics
than anything else and get rejected.
●Alignment with Codex:
The Codex
Alimentarius Commission (CAC)is an international food standards body
established jointly by the Food and Agriculture organization (FAO) and the
World Health Organization (WHO) in May 1963 with the objective of protecting
consumer’s health and ensuring fair practices in food trade.
Aligning with Codex is
also not simple as developed countries always come up with some non-tariff
barriers – like the case of Amul, which was stopped from entering the
Australian and New Zealand markets.
Even as India
dominates with 20-25% of global trade in Spices, the high rates of export
rejections show the current system isn't cutting it.
February
2025: Announcements made by Spice Board of India:
In
a report published way back in Feb 2025, it was mentioned “The Spices Board is
working with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and other
regulatory agencies to bring in more regulations for the industry to usher in
sustainable approaches and conservation-driven strategies to develop the
industry”.
Among the key announcements made by the
Spices Board of India at the International Spice Conference in Bengaluru, it stated
that the Board is taking all measures to protect the reputation of Indian
spices globally, especially after recent international food safety concerns. For
that, they mentioned, they are teaming up with FSSAI and global bodies like the
Codex Committee. This is being done to standardize rules and make international
trade smoother. Also, to ensure that the Indian Spices exports meet EU
standards, they have implemented strict, mandatory ethylene oxide (ETO) testing
for all spices that are being exported. This will be to ensure they meet
international health safety standards.
Regarding the issue of promoting Spices
Internationally, the Board mentioned one factor it wanted to focus on was
“High-Tech Farming” – integrating advanced tech like IoT (Internet of Things),
blockchain, and robotics to track spices transparently from the farm to the
consumer.
June 2026 – The reality:
India
accounted for more than 6,800 of the nearly 13,800 global rejections recorded
in the spices, flavours and salts category, and since 2003, the EU alone has
issued nearly 413 alerts against Indian herbs and spices. This data was
provided by Smita Sirohi, ICAR National Professor at a PHDCCI event in April,
this year.
As
per an article in ET, experts have warned that India risks losing its status as
global leader in Spices trade – damaging Indian brand reputation.
The
main issue is the rejection of exports resulting from
●Poor
quality amidst high pesticide usage
●Lack
of awareness among farmers and continued usage of banned chemicals
●Fragmented
structure of the farms that are held by small and marginal farmers, who lack
modern tech, expert guidance, and affordable digital solutions.
●Further
tightening of global safety rules
●As per
U. Karthik, Director of Asian Spices & Co. and Co-Chairman of the
Federation of Indian Spice Stakeholders (FISS), believes that India needs a
multidisciplinary committee, comprising scientists, industry representatives,
farmer groups, and policymakers to periodically update cultivation protocols
and develop scientifically validated packages of practices (POP) that can
deliver pesticide-free, high-yielding, and fully traceable spice production.
