Celebrating Dry Chillies at India-75 By Hampali Traders

karnataka

Karnataka’s Dry Chilli journey at India 75

1950’s

Haveri District is known for chillies farming, especially Byadgi village
is famous for high quality produce

1960’s

Cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Indore etc., where major
trading (sale) markets, most of all spice and masala mill owners use to
purchase from these sale market.

1970’s

Hubli area farmers started growing chillies, Annigeri and Kundgol are
ahead of major growth.

1980’s

Its a revolutionary start for implement the Oleoresin Extraction. With
this initiative over yeild of produce is managed to solve the farmers
problem.

1990’s

Bellary and Raichur area which were irrigated also started cultivation
of Dry Chilli.

2000’s

This decade saw start of building cold storage infrastructures to help
chillies retain its quality for higher duration. Present capacity is 50+
lakh bags.

2010’s

Digitization: Karnataka state implemented digital tender system at all
its APMC mandi’s, which was first of its kind in India at this scale. This
brought more transparency and trust for farmers.

2020’s

Karnataka leads the Industry in premium category with its Byadgi /
KDL variety.

Dry Chilli is one of major cash crop of India, grown majorly at Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and
Telangana.

Karnataka is one of major market for farmers to trade, which constitutes about 25% share of total India.

Major Chilli growing area in Karnataka are Hubli, Bellary and Raichur.

HUBLI, is known for growing Byadgi / KDL variety popularly known as Local. Local Byadgi has the highest colour value among chillies, upto 270 ASTA. It is grown organically in a traditional way, which gives it a higher shelf life. Annigeri and Kundgol are major growing areas.

BELLARY, is the biggest chilli growing area, main varieties are Byadgi / KDL, Dabbi, Syngenta 5531 and Syngenta 2043.

RAICHUR, main varieties are Byadgi / KDL, Super-10, Indo-5, Syngenta 5531 and Syngenta 2043.

Area	Sowing period	Harvest period
Hubli	June - July	November - March
Bellary	July - August	January - April
Raichur	July - September	February - May

In progress of Karnataka Dry Chilli the complete ecosystem has played a very big role – Farmers, Government Agencies, Traders, Spice and Oleoresin companies, Scientist and now lately startups. Below, people from this ecosystem will be sharing their views.

Foreword by Dr A. B. Rema Shree, Director, Spices Board of India

India is known as the land of Spices and we lead the production, consumption, and export of spices globally. In the Indian spice export basket, the largest traded spice is Chilli. A total volume of 557,168 tons of chilli valued Rs.8,581.88 crore was exported in 2021-22. Indian chillies are known for their pungency and colour. In addition to the culinary uses, Indian chillies are in great demand in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries owing to their health benefits. They are widely used as a colouring agent also.

Characterized by wrinkles on the pods, low pungency and sweet flavour, Byadagi Chillies possess the highest colour value among the different varieties of chillies grown in India. In order to get legal protection against any infringement, Spices Board obtained Geographical Indication registration for Byadagi Chillies in 2008 highlighting its specific geographical origin and the unique features that are due to the origin.

Byadagi Chillies add value to the Indian spice export basket and Spices Board is committed to support the farmers, traders and exporters to promote the spice globally. Attention is also needed to ensure the purity of the crop and making the stakeholders aware of the unique specialities of Byadagi Chillies for better marketing.

I congratulate the Hampali Traders for bringing out the report ‘Karnataka Dry Chillies Journey at India 75’.

Synthite is one of the biggest buyers for Chillies from Karnataka, Andhra & Telangana. We purchase nearly 30000-40000 Mt in a year from these areas.

Out of this nearly 70 % of the material we do procure from open markets and fields. The balance quantity,nearly 8000-9000 Mt we do as IPM. We do have our own contract farming IPM programs mainly in Bellary & Raichur areas in Karnataka where our staff is directly working with farmers and vendors. We do proper trainings and support to farmers throughout the season.

The main varieties which we purchase from Karnataka are Byadgi colour chilli, Syngenta 5531, 334 etc

We are facing a lot of challenges for the material which we are directly buying from the open market.

Challenges

– Pesticide residues: High usage of pesticides especially banned pesticide in Chilli fields leading to Non availability of EU & US spec material. This will highly affect the human health in different ways. The producers, both domestic & Export powder, oleoresin and other forms of product manufactures are struggling due to the high pesticide residue levels.

– Illegal Dyes: Usage of artificial colour for marking the chilli bags in all the markets and fields is leading to spread these dyes to material.

– Aflatoxin & Ochratoxin: Improper drying and practices leads to high Afla & Ochratoxins in Chilli.

– Disease: New Thrips attack in Chilli leads to very less yields and high usage of chemicals.

Solutions

– Pesticide residues : The State/Central Government should take necessary steps to ban the pesticides which are having high toxic chemicals and give proper information to farmers.

– Illegal Dyes: The market committee & Spices board should take necessary steps to avoid the usage of artificial dyes for marking the bags, encourage the farmers to use new bags and avoid using paper coverings and plastic twins. Give proper awareness to farmers.

– Aflatoxin & Ochratoxin: Have to give proper training to farmers from all the stakeholders ( Govt bodies and Companies)

– Thrips attack: Have to find proper solutions to control the Thrips and give information and training to farmers.

I started my journey in 1960 as Dry Chilli trader with small sum at Nagpur, Maharashtra. Then ventured into Chilli powdering, I always wanted to make top quality powder, this led me to go to Karnataka during 1974. At that time Byadgi Chilli had made a big name for itself for its high colour, organic growing, shelf life and aroma. Initially we procured chilli from the Hubli-Annigeri area. Quality of byadgi was so good that we started procuring it year after year, which led to Karani chillies being one top supplier of high quality powder. In 2021-22 Karani Chillies was one of highest purchasers of Top quality original Byadgi Chillies in India. Presently we procure chillies directly from farms and APMC mandi’s across Karnataka, with our processing plants at Nagpur, Maharashtra and Warangal, Telangana.

It is indeed a great endeavour on the part of Mr Hampali to undertake this project to commemorate the 75 years of our Nation’s Freedom. Not many people would take the efforts and trouble to do something like this, because it is slow and time consuming, and eventually you are sharing your knowledge and experience, without expecting or getting any returns on this.

I would call this a very Noble Gesture on his part to share his experiences and knowledge with the Community, which is also an important Plus point for him towards Community building and strengthening the cause of the. Agri Sector for the Karnataka Chillies .

I would like to wish him all the best, and lots of success to continue with this project and many more for the benefit of the Farmers, the trade, and the Research institutes, who also are in need of serious guidance and direction to channel their work and Energy towards what is. ” Trade Centric” instead of being just Research centric.

Wishing you all the best in your efforts and I Seriously applaud your endeavours now.

I started cultivating of Dry chilli in year 1999 on my 70 acre land, before that we use to grow paddy, maize and cotton. By year 2005, our area stopped other crops and started growing only Chilli. From 2000-2017 only KDL / Byadgi was grown but from 2017 we started growing hybrid varieties like Syngenta 2043 and Syngenta 5531.

I started growing Byadgi/KDL dry chilli during 1980’s at my village Annigeri on my 40 acre land. Before that it was mainly grown at Byadgi area. Initially till 2010 we use to get upto 8 quintal/acre yield of export quality. From last 3-4 years due to excessive rain we are not able to bring high yield. I also provide my chillies for other farmers as seeds.

I started my journey as Dry Chilli trader in 1968, in those time Dry Chilli was grown more than what was required hence it was a low demand trading business. But with arrival of Oleoresin extraction industry in 1980’s, it changed the face of Dry Chilli completely. And small traders like me could dream big.

Byadgi APMC market gave Karnataka big name internationally due to ecosystem which was built from past 70 years, and it gets arrivals from Hubli, Bellary, Raichur and from Andhra Pradesh also. With introduction of Digital tender system (REMS), brought more transparency and competitiveness which benefited farmer. And rain feed area of Hubli and Gadag which are ideal for growing high coloured quality of Byadgi / KDL, use low pesticides and fertilizers. Hubli APMC and Gadag APMC are now known for premium quality chillies.

I am involved in chilli pepper crop improvement program for the last three decades at ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru. The chilli crop got introduced to the Country about 500 years back and got acclimatized to Indian climatic conditions. Due to its natural cross pollination and farmers’ selection many landraces evolved in Country, of which Byadagi chilli is one among them and is mainly preferred by the Industry for its oleoresin content, colour value and aroma. Due to cultivation of commercial F1 hybrids in the major Byadagi grown belt, the variety’s genetic purity is getting deteriorated. I feel there is a strong need to purify these landrace. Further, incorporation of major disease resistance genes, without compromising the fruit quality is the major challenge for the byadigi crop breeders.

Agnext is India’s new age Agritech startup aiming to bring trust, speed & transparency in the agriculture value chain using AI-based food assessment technologies. AgNext has innovated & developed full-stack integrated algorithms, software & hardware platform, which addresses quality assessment issues across the agri value chain, enabling businesses to analyse food on-the-spot in just 60 seconds. We in partnership with Spices Board of India had deployed an innovative curcumin testing technology for rapid quality assessment of Lakadong turmeric. We are also working with Hampali Traders to make our solution available for world famous Byadgi chilli.

Major Top Qualities At Karnataka

Crop Report 2021-22

Scope	Sowed area	Climate effect
Karnataka - Hubli, Bellary and Raichur	Due to previous year high price, farmer’s have increased sowing area by 30-35%.	Crop till november 1st week were in good condition and farmer’s had a bumber crop expectations. But all changed after arrival of cyclone rainfall which resulted in western black thrips.

Dry Chilli Market Report for Karnataka : 2021-22

Please find the year 2021-22 monthly report and data regarding crop arrivals, prices and insights.

Arrivals December

Arrival in 1st week of December
2020-21 was 3262 Bags
2021-22 was 20373 Bags

Arrival in 2nd week of December
2020-21 was 100699 Bags
2021-22 was 46736 Bags

Arrival in 3rd week of December
2020-21 was 143578 Bags
2021-22 was 80281 Bags

Arrival in 4th week of December
2020-21 was 132692 Bags
2021-22 was 189017 Bags

Arrival in 5th week of December
2020-21 was 212329 Bags
2021-22 was 298705 Bags

	Byadgi/KDL	Dabbi	Devanur Deluxe(DD)	Syngenta 5531	Syngenta 2043
2020-21	35000
2021-22	34000

Around 6.5 lakh bags arrivals in the month of december, which is 7% increase comparatively last year.

Due to Cyclonic rainfall big area like Bellary is affected heavily, resulting 50% of crop become Fatki (low quality) last year it was only 25%.

Price become high because of shortage in quality arrivals.

In the month of December crop is affected by western flower black thrips, due to this reason most of the new arrivals was fatki.

Arrivals January

Arrival in 1st week of January
2020-21 was 27790 Bags
2021-22 was 34006 Bags

Arrival in 2nd week of January
2020-21 was 188636 Bags
2021-22 was 363273 Bags

Arrival in 3rd week of January
2020-21 was 100860 Bags
2021-22 was 271283 Bags

Arrival in 4th week of January
2020-21 was 205202 Bags
2021-22 was 498944 Bags

Arrival in 5th week of January
2020-21 was 235066 Bags
2021-22 was 721179 Bags

	Byadgi/KDL	Dabbi	Devanur Deluxe(DD)	Syngenta 5531	Syngenta 2043
2020-21	34000		18000	17000	29000
2021-22	35500	40000	19500	18000	27000

Around 18.8 lakh bags arrivals in month of January, which is 250% more than last year. The increase was due to arrival of Hubli-Gadag area, Bagalkot-Bijapur and Bellary area. All APMC markets were flooded with chillies.

About 35% of arrivals was Fatki, last year it was 20%.

Shortage of top quality arrivals, price was recorded ever high.

In the month of January, Local KDL / Byadgi arrivals was high. Organically farmed Local KDL / Byadgi fetched good prices.

Arrivals February

Arrival in 1st week of February
2020-21 was 301033 Bags
2021-22 was 266856 Bags

Arrival in 2nd week of February
2020-21 was 415210 Bags
2021-22 was 303446 Bags

Arrival in 3rd week of February
2020-21 was 486702 Bags
2021-22 was 525090 Bags

Arrival in 4th week of February
2020-21 was 184987 Bags
2021-22 was 457531 Bags

Arrival in 5th week of February
2021-22 was 165244 Bags

	Byadgi/KDL	Dabbi	Devanur Deluxe(DD)	Syngenta 5531	Syngenta 2043
2020-21	32000	36000	17000	15000	26000
2021-22	33500	37000	22000	20000	26000

Around 17.2 lakh bags arrivals in month of february, which is 25% more than the last year.

About 20% of arrivals was Fatki, last year it was 5%.

Price for top quality was steady. Fatki / Medium quality arrivals gained good price. Pungent varieties like (DD and 5531) increased by 15%.

Month of February, arrivals of top quality Local KDL / Byadgi was there on good scale, from 2nd week onwards, Dabbi / Kashmiri also started entering into the market.

Arrivals March

Arrival in 1st week of March
2020-21 was 447334 Bags
2021-22 was 114075 Bags

Arrival in 2nd week of March
2020-21 was 346092 Bags
2021-22 was 331298 Bags

Arrival in 3rd week of March
2020-21 was 458409 Bags
2021-22 was 215988 Bags

Arrival in 4th week of March
2020-21 was 474508 Bags
2021-22 was 100513 Bags

Arrival in 5th week of March
2020-21 was 4821 Bags
2021-22 was 63941 Bags

	Byadgi/KDL	Dabbi	Devanur Deluxe(DD)	Syngenta 5531	Syngenta 2043
2020-21	29000	33000	15000	14000	24000
2021-22	30000	35000	21000	19000	25500

Around 8.25 lakh bags arrivals in month of march, which is 53% less compare to last year. The decrease was mainly due to crop loss in Bellary, Raichur and Andhra Pradesh.

About 10% of arrivals was Fatki, last year it was almost nill.

Prices for top qualities arrivals was 5-10% less and for second / medium quality was down by 15%.

Expected arrival of Dabbi, in big quantities was not performed well, also same with Bellary area KDL / Byadgi.

Arrivals April

Arrival in 1st week of April
2020-21 was 22653 Bags

Arrival in 2nd week of April
2020-21 was 503043 Bags
2021-22 was 52789 Bags

Arrival in 3rd week of April
2020-21 was 142288 Bags
2021-22 was 27128 Bags

Arrival in 4th week of April
2020-21 was 212832 Bags
2021-22 was 40976 Bags

Arrival in 5th week of April
2021-22 was 23264 Bags

	Byadgi/KDL	Dabbi	Devanur Deluxe(DD)	Syngenta 5531	Syngenta 2043
2020-21	26000	29000	14000	13000	22000
2021-22	32000	39000	22000	20000	28000

Around 1.5 lakh bags arrivals in month of april, which is 80% less compare to last year.
Prices of all qualities gained by 10-15%.

Farmers start storing their produce in cold storage due to low arrivals.

Bellary area was severely affected by western black thrips disease, for this reason they produced very less quantity, and majorly affected to the entire market.

50% Karnataka market share was from Bellary in the Year 2020-21.

Year 2021-22 Summary

Around 55 lakh bags hit the market this year from december 2021 to april 2022, which is similar to last year.

Karnataka has about 55-60 lakh bags of cold storage capacity, by may 2022 they were 60% capacity occupied (this includes 20% of the previous years stock). Last year it was roughly 90% capacity occupied (this includes 10% of its previous years stock).

Due to excessive rain during month of November destroyed most of the Bellary area crop, similarly Raichur was also affected certain extend. But new area of Hubli Local KDL had bumper crop, which helped Karnataka to reach 55 lakh bags arrivals.

The disease-infected / Rain-touch / white-fatki arrivals was about 30% this year compared with last year of 10%.

Chilli was arriving at market till April 2022, last year arrivals was till may 2021.

Know Hampali Traders

Hampali Traders is 50 year old Dry Chilli Merchant firm
based at Hubli, Karnataka. Shri Nagappa Hampali is founder
of this respected firm, who is known for his hardwork & sincerity.

We prefer to purchase directly from farmers and also from
APMC yards. Our purchase centres are Hubli, Bellary,
Gadag and Raichur.

For branding of Hubli area Byadgi / KDL chilli, yearly we create
Handbok, it’s a 18 page book filled with our 5 decades
experience. Other than our traditional trader experience, we
have used Data Analytics to track prices and arrivals for the
past three years. If you are a spice company and are interested
in Byadgi / KDL chilli, then this is best fit for you.

Connect

Mr. Basu Hampali

www.Hampali.business.site
www.Linkedin.com/in/BasuHampali
BasuHampali@gmail.com

Address: Hampali Traders, B-33, APMC Yard, Hubbali, Karnataka 580025

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