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Spices park for Idukki

          Idukki (Kerala): A spices park will soon come up in Kerala's Idukki district. The objective is to establish globally competitive units for manufacturing spice products. The export of spices contributes significantly to the economy of Kerala. The state is known worldwide for its whole spices, organic spices, spice mixes and blends, dried and freeze dried spices, curry powers, oleoresins, extracts and oils now. A majority of the export falls in the category of raw spices. Studies of this sector are now showing a gradual shift from raw spice export to the export of value added spice products. According to the provisional data, spice exports from Kerala constitute only eight per cent of the annual spice production. The Spices Park in Idukki, according to a Commodity Online report, will be a state of art center for value added products. All the modern post harvest technologies will be made available there. Infrastructure facilities with international standards will be provided for establishing spice based industries.

         Standardization and quality control are the buzz words in spices product export today, and therefore, the Spices Park here will have a quality control laboratory and a common testing facility. The park is also expected to have uninterrupted power and water supply, besides an adequate drainage and sewage disposal system. Common facilities like communication and canteen, post harvesting facilities, conference and exhibition facilities, an research and development center, including training centers for farmers and processors, medical facilities and adequate security measures will be the other important features. The park will take care of the social aspect of workers lives also. As majority of the workers in spices industries are ladies, facilities like crhche has its own importance. Lack of similar facilities is the main draw back in many industries in the rural areas. The Spices Park in Idukki is being established jointly by the Spices Board and Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra), a statutory body of the Government of Kerala. Initial funding of the Joint Venture will be through the equity from Kinfra and Spices Board and the capital base will be widened in future. The expertise of Spices Board will be helpful in providing technical know how in designing the infrastructure facilities. The Board will also provide technical support and market development initiatives to the units. The experience of Kinfra in the Joint Ventures with MPEDA and Rubber Board will be another asset for the units here.
- March 17, 2007