Demand for jeera exports slowing down due to high prices, says Harjiv Swani

India is the largest exporter of spices across the globe, offering spices and related products of over 200 types. In FY22 alone, India exported $4.1 billion worth of spices.

One of the spices that India exports is Jeera or cumin. And the prices here have seen a jump of over 45 percent in the past month amid high demand and fears of crop damage due to unfavourable weather.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Harjiv Swani of Swani Spice said they are starting to see some demand slowdown in export markets for jeera due to the high prices. However, he highlighted that domestic demand still continues to be strong.

Swani said, "The domestic buying can't stop. In India, we normally eat the entire jeera crop ourselves. But India is the world’s largest exporter of jeera. So we have seen that the demand is starting to slow down because customers are not able to digest these high prices. So we are seeing some very little movement in the exports business, but domestic I believe remains quite active."

Swani added that there has been a lower planting of cumin across the country. He expects a production shortfall of about 2,00,000 tonne for the current year.

"We have seen lower planting of cumin across the country. India typically has a crop of about 7,00,000 to about 6,50,000 tonne of cumin. This year, we are looking at a crop of only 4,00,000 to 4,50,000 tonne. So that really creates a shortfall of anywhere about 2,00,000 tonne, which is huge because there is no Indian dish that is made without jeera," Swani added.