Chinniah Sekhar¹ , N.  Venkatesan² , D.  Murugananthi³ , A.  Vidhyavathi¹

1 Department of Agricultural Economics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore – 641 003, India
2 Department of Social Sciences, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Killikulam- 628 252, India
3 Department of Agricultural and Rural Management, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore – 641 003, India
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Horticulture, 2018, Vol. 8, No. 3   doi: 10.5376/ijh.2018.08.0003
Received: 03 Jan., 2018    Accepted: 08 Jan., 2018    Published: 10 Feb., 2018

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Sekhar C., Venkatesan N., Murugananthi D., and Vidhyavathi A., 2018, Status of value addition and export of moringa produce in Tamil Nadu – a case study, International Journal of Horticulture, 8(3): 16-28 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2018.08.0003)

 

Moringa is widely used as vegetable and grown commercially for its edible pods and leaves. Moringa oleifera is an important food commodity which has had enormous attention as the ‘natural nutrition of the tropics’. The leaves, fruit, flowers and immature pods of this tree are used as a highly nutritive vegetable in many countries particularly in India, Pakistan, Philippines, Hawaii and many parts of Africa. India is the prime producer of Moringa (Drumstick) with an annual production of 2.2 million tonnes of tender fruits leading to the productivity of around 51 tonnes per ha. Tamil Nadu is one of the largest producers of Moringa with an annual production of 6.71 lakh tonnes of tender fruits from an area of 13042 ha. An aggregate sampling to the tune of one hundred farmers whom are cultivating Moringa in their farms and 20 Traders forming a sum of 120 samples. Besides a Case Firm is also contacted which is involved in Manufacturing and Export of value added products of Moringa. The name of the case firm contacted is M/s. Miracletree Life Science has its headquarters at Madurai. The Firm has its own plantation in and around Madurai which is established in an organic way. There were 18 products to their credit manufactured by them. M/S Miracle Tree Life Science firm is concentrating international markets by sending some of their products abroad. Among the various products, the Moringa Wunder Mix is exported to Germany and has received good repute to the firm. One hundred gram of Wunder Mix is priced at Rupees seven hundred which is equivalent to $ 10.77. The firm has gained FSSAI certificate, HALAL certificate, Good Management Practices Certificate and Organic Verification Certificates to its credit. The need of Value added products of Moringa is growing alarmingly both in Regional, National and International Markets and hence the technology and infrastructure support must be provided with a focus on precision farming technologies for enhancing higher productivity from the level of 28 tonnes per ha. For that an organizational intervention is needed and hence a “National Research Centre for Moringa” or a Commodity Board on the lines of “Tea Board” may be established and pronounced as a “Moringa Board” for tapping its potentials both in production, processing for value addition and Export.

Value addition; Export of moringa; Case study on moringa; Natural nutrition; Wunder mix; Moringa chocolates; Moringa tablets; Moringa leaf powder