ITC Empowers Spice Farmers; Becomes India’s Leading Organic Spices Exporter

· ITC has developed a vibrant ecosystem to empower Indian farmers through high-value spice cultivation linking them to global markets

· In 2025, ITC became the leading exporter of organic spices in the country, creating a large market for Indian spices globally

· It is also a dominant spices player in India & caters to the need for high quality spices for several domestic players including its own world-class brands Aashirvaad, Sunrise & 24 Mantra Organic

· ITC’s Guntur facility in Andhra Pradesh, One of Asia’s largest for processed spices, spans 6 acres with over 20,000 MT capacity, and processes 15 plus spices, including organic variants

· ITC is leveraging advanced technologies to ensure traceability and is providing AI/ML enabled customized digital solutions to farmers to strengthen its spices value chains

New Delhi, 18th May 2026: ITC has built a comprehensive and vibrant Agri-ecosystem that is empowering Indian farmers to grow high-value spices and increase their incomes through access to superior advisory, technological inputs, traceability and global market access. Backed by its world-class spices processing facility in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh and through its integrated tech-enabled spices programme, ITC has cumulatively benefited over 31,800 spices farmers across 2.2 lakh acres, enabling them to improve productivity, adopt sustainable agricultural practices and enhance their incomes through export opportunities.

In 2025, ITC emerged as India’s leading exporter of organic spices, creating a large global market for Indian spices while reinforcing its commitment to building globally competitive agricultural value chains and sustainable livelihoods for farmers.

ITC’s state-of-the-art spices processing facility in Guntur, part of the overall ecosystem, reflects ITC’s long-standing commitment to national priorities such as promotion of high-value agriculture, improving farmer incomes, facilitating agri export and development of cutting-edge ‘Make in India’ infrastructure.

ITC’s spices processing facility in Guntur is One of Asia’s largest for processed spices. Spread over 6 acres with a capacity of over 20,000 MT per annum and can handle more than 15 spices varieties. The facility anchors an integrated end-to-end organic spices value chain right upto the farmgate and is equipped with specialized processing, logistics and packaging infrastructure to handle organic produce. The facility is enabled by end-to-end traceability through barcode-based sourcing, ensuring visibility across processing operations.

ITC has nurtured a century-long relationship with farmers, connecting with them directly at the farm gate to develop sustainable and inclusive agri value chains that add to its agri-export competitiveness, while securing inputs for ITC’s own Foods brands.

Talking about the initiative, Mr. S Ganesh Kumar, Divisional Chief Executive, Agri Business, ITC Ltd, said, “As part of the ITC Next strategy, we have steadily expanded our Value-Added Agriculture Products (VAAP) portfolio across multiple agri value chains, creating new opportunities and improving farmer incomes, with spices as a key focus area. At ITC, farmer empowerment is central to how we build sustainable agri-value chains in the country. By combining strong on-ground engagement with science-based climate-smart practices, digital tools and superior market linkages, we are helping farmers improve productivity, quality and incomes. Our integrated approach ensures that farmers are not just producers but active participants in value creation for the nation, enabling them to benefit from growing global demand for high-quality Indian spices.”

To build a robust and integrated value chain for high-quality spices, ITC has developed a comprehensive backward integration programme with farmer empowerment at its core. This programme is anchored in three key models: Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Integrated Crop Management (ICM) and Organic farming, each designed to support farmers with the right practices, inputs and market linkages.

The impact of ITC’s interconnected spices development programme on farmers’ livelihood has been significant. According to an earlier analysis by IDH, a global organization, over a 10-year period that farmers engaged in these programmes, had seen incomes improve by 42% compared to baseline farmers, driven by better yields, cost reduction, quality and market access. The insights from the baseline study have helped ITC implement and strengthen the spices’ value-chain. IDH is an international organization that focuses on public and private collaborations to make global agri value chains more sustainable and inclusive.

Promoting higher value spices has also significantly enhanced ITC’s sourcing competitiveness across global customers and geographies. By focusing on premium, value added spices such as organic, traceable and sustainably sourced products, ITC has been able to cater to evolving consumer preferences for health and wellness, food safety and traceability, premiumisation and ethically sourced produce in developed global markets.

In international markets, ITC has been working closely with buyers to develop these agri-value chains across key spices such as chilli, cumin, turmeric and coriander. This has led to a growing presence of Indian spices in food-safe export markets, including the USA, the EU and UK. The initiative has also contributed to enhancing India’s competitiveness in high value spices exports by strengthening supply chain, enabling compliance and facilitating efficient processing.

Technology is a key enabler in this model. To enable digital traceability across the spices’ value chain, ITC has implemented a digital-enabled, bar-code-based platform providing end-to-end traceability from farm to export, covering cultivation, inputs, harvest and logistics. This has significantly improved export compliances and lowered recall risk for Indian spices in the global markets. The spices consignments have met food safety limits in key markets, including the EU, Japan and the US, strengthening export access while helping farmers meet global standards.

Besides, ITC leverages its unique ‘phygital’ platform, ITCMAARS, to deliver AI-powered on-ground hyper-personalised farmer advisory across the spices value chain through its network of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs). The platform provides customized end-to-end solutions to farmers right from sowing to harvest. This includes an AI-enabled ‘Crop Calendar’, weather insights, alerts, and Crop Doctor, a machine learning (ML) based image recognition tool for pest identification and treatment. The ITCMAARS superapp also includes a Fertilizer Calculator and community-based inputs for informed and timely decisions, as well as Krishi Mitra – a Gen AI powered voice-based assistant and chatbot in multiple regional languages.

The platform also enables hyperlocal e-markets for inputs and outputs. In the spices value chain, ITCMAARS supports over 18250 farmers through the FPO ecosystem and is in the process of introducing a Profit and Loss Calculator that will help farmers make more informed crop-planning and input decisions to grow high vale agri commodities.

Besides spices exports, ITC has a strong presence in the domestic spices market and caters to the demand for high quality spices for diverse players including its own world-class brands such as Aashirvaad, Sunrise and 24 Mantra Organic.