[Music] green cardamom is one of the most expensive spices in the world just one kilogram of it can sell for ninety dollars but getting that little bit of green cardamom requires a lot of work harvesters need to collect six kilograms of these small raw pods by hand to produce just one kilogram of the spice so why is it so hard to grow green cardamom and is that what makes it so expensive known as the queen of spices cardamom comes from small oval shaped fruits called pods which contain several black seeds inside those seeds are what give green cardamom its uniquely citrusy sweet flavor and aroma the green cardamom plant grows in select regions around the world but it especially thrives in india's iduki district where raja's family has grown the spice for 30 years after cardamom is planted farmers must wait three years for the plants to mature when that waiting period is finally over workers have most of the year from july to next february to harvest while that's a long harvesting period not all of the pods can be harvested at the same time and knowing precisely when to harvest is a job for highly skilled workers [Music] to do the job right harvesters train for six months alongside experienced farmers this is when they learn to decipher a ripe fruit that can be picked versus a raw pod that is not yet ready to harvest in the end the plant doesn't yield much farmers harvest a maximum of 10 pods on average from each plant that number of pods produces only about one and a half teaspoons of ground cardamom but harvesting is just the beginning only after the pods are dried well they look like the green cardamoms sold in stores you can buy cardamom pods just the black seeds or ground cardamom which are the seeds in powdered form all the pods head to a separate location to dry for about 18 hours within a day or so after harvesting any delay will cause the pods to decay and lose flavor drying also preserves the spices green color a factor that directly impacts how valuable a pod will be and what it will be used for from here the pods are cleaned and sorted workers use their hands to push and separate the smaller lower quality pods through the holes [Music] each pod is then graded based on its size weight and color highly value pods are bigger greener and full of seeds out of all the cardamom raja harvests the majority won't be worth very much in fact only a sixth will qualify as good quality marketable cardamom they are like the first quality yeah some exported whole grain cardamom pods from other producers can be even costlier retailing for over four times the price at ninety dollars per kilogram the company's lowest grade cost 900 indian rupees for about 12 dollars per kilogram and can be sold as ground cardamom pods with any sign of discoloration or rot aren't marketable and will therefore be rejected [Music] [Music] but this whole process could be totally disrupted by changes in weather if there's too much rain the pods will rot if there's not enough they'll burn out from the sun more recently the world's climate crisis and unpredictable weather in india's iduki district specifically have heard supplies of green cardamom the district makes up at least a sixth of global production and roughly three quarters of india's green cardamom production but its supply took a hit in recent years as harsh weather and rains ruined farmers crops this drove up the prices of cardamom in 2019 but didn't necessarily benefit small farmers in order to make a huge profit farmers need a large inventory and when cardamom is sold in small amounts by small farmers most of the payment is used to cover the cost of production only raja spends about 15 000 indian rupees or about two hundred dollars per acre just on fertilizer that's between ten and fifteen percent of the total profits he'll make off that acre and those profits often don't cover the total all this considered the global cardamom market is expected to grow by about 169 million dollars between 2021 and 2025.
this is good for the industry but could present a challenge for farmers unable to meet demand as the climate crisis continues to threaten the supply of this coveted spice .
