E-Marketing of Small Cardamom in Kerala: Constraint-Benefit Analysis

Background: Cardamom is often valued as the third most expensive spice in the world after saffron and vanilla. The prominent area where e-marketing is adopted in spice trade in Kerala is in the e-auctioning of cardamom. The Spices Board had introduced e-auction of cardamom in Vandanmedu, Idukki, Kerala in December 2007. The other e-marketing platforms of cardamom includes marketing through websites and social media. The current study aimed to delineate the benefits and constraints perceived by farmers in e-marketing of cardamom.
Methods: The study was conducted in the Idukki district of Kerala. Sixty farmers undertaking e-marketing of cardamom were selected and interviewed, six each from the ten panchayats with maximum area under cardamom cultivation. The benefits and constraints identified based on open-ended questions during survey were listed and ranked according to their frequency and percentage.
Result: The major benefits of e-marketing identified were the availability of proper transaction records and bills, assurance of timely delivery and prompt payment and absence of information asymmetry between buyers and sellers. The major constraints of e-marketing identified were the delay in payments, exploitation of farmers by auctioning agencies and effect of lot number in the e-auction on the prices offered.