Crop deficit and price hike hit hard on chilli exports

Crop deficit and price hike hit hard on chilli exports. Being the largest exported spice from India, chilli has an estimated 20% lower export this year, say reports. The situation worsens when the prices crashed a record, as much as 50% compared to last year.

The current price range of Rs 70-110 per kg is almost double that a year ago. As a result, major buyers like China stepped back from buying chilli from India as it did last year. With China buying Indian chilli in large quantities in recent years, annual exports from India exceeded 4 lakh tonnes and earnings topped Rs 5,000 crore.

However, since the prices have plunged, the export volumes are not expected to cross 5 lakh tonnes this year. The good quality chilli, which arrived during the early stages of the harvest, is diverted into cold storages. This led to lower quality chilli flooding the market, another reason for slackening exports. Poor crop from usual markets has forced local buyers to depend more on the output from the eastern states.

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