Sustainable spices

4 April 2011

From tropical root to responsible food

Consumers and food industry professionals demand high quality, traceable ingredients. But what about spices, which are just a tiny fraction of most foods? What are the opportunities of making the spice sector sustainable? What joint investments are needed? And how can farmers and small businesses meet requirements for sustainability and certification?

On Tuesday 12 October, these and other important questions will be discussed during an afternoon conference at the Royal Tropical Institute. The participants will be invited to help build support for bringing sustainability to the Dutch spice sector, together with spice producers, importers and retailers. Exporters and farmers' representatives from Vietnam, Uganda, India and Mozambique will also be present.

The idea sprouted to make a dossier on the occasion of the sustainable spice conference. Here you find the result so far, a dossier containing background material to the conference. You will find only a glimpse of the enormous number of interesting books and documents available on spice trade worldwide in the literature lists provided in the history section. You can further find a selection of online available information in the sections on sustainable production & supply, sustainable markets, and sustainable standards and regulations.

Building on sustainability in the spice sector is work in progress and so is this dossier. We very much welcome feedback and additional material for updates! Please contact the editor at j.sluijs@kit.nl. This dossier was compiled in collaboration with Paulien Schuurmans & Astrid de Jongh (KIT ILS) and Marije Boomsma & Ellen Mangnus (KIT DEV).

We wish you a good appetite reading!