Spice Cultivation in India

Largest producer, consumer, and exporter, all at once

India is the world’s largest producer, consumer, and exporter of spices. In 2024-25, its estimated total spice production was about 11.99 million tonnes. Major spices grown across the country include chilli, cumin, turmeric, ginger, coriander, black pepper, and cardamom.

Kerala wears the crown

Kerala is popularly called “the land of spices.” It is India’s largest producer of both black pepper and cardamom, the two spices most associated with the state’s own history.

Two bodies became one

In 1960, the government set up the Spices Export Promotion Council to grow India’s spice exports. In 1968, it set up a separate Cardamom Board, focused only on that one crop. In 1987, it merged both into the Spices Board of India, under the Spices Board Act, 1986.

One regulator, 52 spices, six labs

The Spices Board today regulates and promotes exports of 52 scheduled spices. Its headquarters sits in Kochi, Kerala, with a quality-testing lab on site. It also runs regional testing labs in Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Tuticorin, Kandla, and Guntur.

Kerala’s own two GI crops

Kerala’s black pepper carries its own Geographical Indication tag, as “Malabar Pepper.” It is grown mainly in Wayanad, Kannur, Kozhikode, and Kasaragod, plus parts of Malappuram and Idukki. Kerala’s small cardamom carries its own separate GI tag too, as “Idukki Green Cardamom.”

Two more GI spices, far from Kerala

Odisha’s Kandhamal Haldi, a turmeric grown by tribal farmers, received its GI tag on 1 April 2019. Meghalaya’s Lakadong turmeric carries a GI tag too, prized for its unusually high curcumin content. See IndEco0206 — Mission Golden Spice for that full story.

Not just spices generally, turmeric specifically

India is the world’s largest producer and exporter of turmeric on its own, not just spices as a whole category. In 2022-23, it grew more than 30 turmeric varieties. These are grown mainly in Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.

A big grower, but a smaller exporter

India grows over 40% of the world’s total spice output, by volume. Yet in global spice-export earnings, it holds only about a 9% share, by value. That gap looks strange at first glance for the world’s largest producer.

Most spices never leave the kitchen

The explanation is simple. Most of India’s spices feed its own kitchens, not export markets. India’s huge population, and its own cuisine, drive enormous domestic spice demand, long before any surplus reaches a ship.

Chilli leads, by a wide margin

In FY2024-25, chilli alone made up 27% of India’s spice-export earnings. Cumin added about 12% more, and spice oils and oleoresins another 12%. Small cardamom contributed about 9%, and mint products roughly 8%.

A handful of categories, and three big buyers

Together, these top categories made up over 90% of all spice-export earnings. The USA, China, and the UAE are India’s three largest spice-buying markets.

A scheme built for quality, not just volume

The Spices Board runs the SPICED scheme, approved in 2024 with an outlay of ₹422.30 crore, running through FY2025-26. It funds cardamom replanting and micro-irrigation, GI-spice promotion, and Spice Incubation Centres for farmer groups. The goal is raising exportable quality, not just raw volume.

Guatemala’s bad season

Guatemala is India’s main global rival in cardamom. In the 2025 season, its crop fell by about 44%, from a normal 40,000-50,000 tonnes down to roughly 17,000 tonnes. Buyers who usually sourced from Guatemala suddenly needed cardamom from somewhere else.

India stepped into the gap

India’s cardamom exports rose sharply as a result. Between April and July 2025, they climbed about 37.6% year-on-year, as global buyers turned to Indian supply to fill the shortfall left by Guatemala’s failed harvest.

An all-time export high

In FY2024-25, India’s spice exports hit an all-time high: 17.99 lakh tonnes, worth ₹39,994.48 crore, about $4.72 billion. That was a 17% jump in volume, and a 6% rise in value, over the year before.

A modest correction, not a fresh record

Cumulative spice-export value for FY2025-26 stood at about $4.26 billion so far. That is against $4.45 billion in the same period of the record FY2024-25. So the record year’s pace has cooled slightly, even with Guatemala’s cardamom boost included.