Ministry of Commerce And Supplies - Enhanced Integrated ...

N T I S2010Types of Exported Products: There are a few varieties of large cardamom cultivated in Nepal like Ramsai, Golsai,Chibesai, Dambersai, Sawney, and Kantidaar. Among these, Ramsai, Golsai, and Chibesai are widespread incultivation and export. Most of the large cardamom is exported without undertaking value adding activities,such as grading by size, in Nepal.Current Export Destinations: India is the major export market for Nepalese large cardamom (90 per cent ofNepal’s exports). Pakistan, Singapore, and the UAE are the other main export markets for Nepal. Accordingto information obtained from traders, Afghanistan also has been emerging as an important buyer of Nepalilarge cardamom over the past three years.Potential Export Destinations: Based on Indian export statistics, the main importers of large cardamom arePakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, UK, and the USA. These markets appear to have the highest potential for directexport from Nepal. Some exports to these markets are already occurring, and in addition exports to Nepal areoften re-exported to these markets. (More on this below.)Nepal’s World Market Share: Nepal is the world’s largest exporter of large cardamom and its exports to Indiaalone are much higher than India’s exports. Using data for 2008, Nepal’s share of world exports is around 90per cent. 2Trade Balance: Nepal is a net exporter of large cardamom. Very few imports are recorded.Dynamism of Exports: It is estimated that less than 10 per cent of the total production goes for domesticconsumption and the remaining 90 per cent is for export. The export trend of Nepalese large cardamom toIndia and overseas markets has been very encouraging. In terms of quantity it has more than doubled in thelast five years (based on Nepalese data). Export values also show an upward trend, but with a significantdifference between mirror data (mainly based on Indian data) and Nepalese data.Prices can fluctuate significantly and have shown no clear trend in recent years (ITC, 2007c).Export Prospect: Nepal’s export of large cardamom is very dependent on the Siliguri market in India.Cardamom is mainly exported to that market, where traders do value adding activities like tail cutting, gradingby size, cleaning, and dispatching to markets like Delhi and Mumbai. The dependency on that market couldbe reduced if some of these activities could be done within Nepal. Traders report that almost all the exportedquantity of large cardamom from Nepal to India is re-exported to Pakistan, UAE, and other countries byIndian traders from Delhi and Mumbai, although this cannot be confirmed with trade statistics (India importssignificantly more from Nepal than it exports to third countries). It is also reported that Nepali large cardamomis preferred over the Indian large cardamom in Pakistan and other markets due to its quality. Thus, there is agreat potential for Nepal to increase direct exports to those markets. However, most cardamom is consumedin India, which will remain the main market in the foreseeable future, too. India has shown a declining trendin production due to diseases, which is an opportunity for Nepal to increase its production and exports (ITC,2007c).Index 2: World Market ConditionsTotal World Export Value: The world market consists mainly of three trade flows: Nepal to India, Nepalto third countries, and India to third countries. Nepal’s exports to India account for up to 90 per cent ofinternational trade in large cardamom, depending on the data used. India’s exports of large cardamom havebeen around US$4-6 million in recent years, significantly less than Nepal’s exports to India. The Total WorldExport Value for 2008 is estimated to be around US$20-30 million.2In 2008, India imported 10,391 MT of large cardamom from Nepal. India’s exports in 2007/08 were 1,325 MT.22NEPAL TRADE INTEGRATION STRATEGY 2010BACKGROUND REPORT