Tamarind monograph.pdf - Crops for the Future

oils; tans and dyes; gums, resins and oleoresins; drugs; spices; insecticides;
leaves; edible products; lac and its products, and miscellaneous products.
Most of these products have traditionally been collected, processed,
consumed and traded by people in and around forest areas for generations.
At a national level, over 50% of forest revenue and 70% of forest exports
comes from MFPs, they provide 50% of income for 20-30% of rural people
in India. Tamarind is marketed mainly by rural communities and forms a
significant part of their income. The annual quantity and earnings from nonwood
forest products, including tamarind, per family in tribal villages of
South Bihar and South West Bengal is reported to be substantial (220 kg of
tamarind earning Rs 514 (Rao and Singh, 1996). Therefore, better
cultivation of tamarind and improvement of processing technologies will
enhance the employment opportunities of rural people in the producing
countries.
The importance of growers understanding the need for a business plan was
shown in Thailand where training on all aspects of production and marketing
was provided to 120 farms at a community business level. Business
planning, group management and financial accounting management rapidly
increased (Treewannakul et al, 2004).
10.5 Marketing
Tamarind fruit pulp is manufactured and marketed wherever tamarind is
cultivated, however much of the trade is local, carried out in small towns and
villages. The national and international commerce of tamarind is more
limited for the following reasons:
� Tamarind has not received sufficient research attention over the years
and in most producing countries unimproved trees are cultivated. The
exception is the recent development of cultivars in India of the sweet
types growing in Southeast Asia, where there is an emerging interest in
the crop for the fresh fruit trade.
� Fresh fruits of the sour type have village level markets yet the fruits are
often not collected because of low demand and the low prices received
by collectors. Often producers are exploited by middlemen.
� Most of the fruits and seeds go to waste due to lack of technologies for
processing and storage. Available technologies have not been
disseminated among growers in different countries.
� Processed pulp is of low quality and does not meet the standards of the
international market.
� Alternate low cost processing technologies are not readily available.
� Many of the products presently available are restricted to domestic
markets of producing countries and have not reached international
markets.
120