India to gain from China spices export curbs

Beijing's move to curb export of spices will put India in an advantageous position, especially exports of ginger and garlic to the US market. This is in the wake of widespread rejection of Chinese products due to inferior quality and alarmingly high content of pesticides.

In recent years, countries like the US and Japan have been campaigning against Chinese goods ranging from toys, tyres to seafood and toothpaste. China has recently restricted export of garlic and ginger to USA after a California-based company recalled ginger imported from China from a dozen of supermarkets because it was tainted with a banned insecticide.

Beijing has already kicked off a four-month campaign to restore customer confidence at home and abroad. As part of the campaign, China has tightened production licensing and labelling requirement in order to overhaul the quality and safety of its goods.

Leading Indian exporters said that Chinese products were priced much lower than Indian products so it was difficult to compete with them on the export front. They said that some Chinese exporters openly admit that the lower price tags are because of compromise on quality

They added that enquiries from USA were active to import dried ginger, but were reluctant because of the high price tag. China offers $1325-1400 per tonne, while the current Indian tag is $1585-1600. Nigeria offers ginger at $950 per tonne.

Indian ginger export to USA had dropped to around 1000 tonnes in recent years as against 4000-5000 tonnes few years ago.

The US importers are importing fresh ginger from Brazil, which is costlier by around 30 per cent. So the retail price of garlic and ginger in the US increased by 30-40 per cent in recent weeks.