From Business Insider.
Turmeric has been cooked into staple dishes and used in herbal medicine for thousands of years in India. But in the last decade, the spice has taken on new life in the West, encapsulated into tablets and pressed into juice shots. That’s all thanks to America’s newest obsession: curcumin. The healthy compound is found only in turmeric and is responsible for the spice’s anti-inflammatory and antioxidant powers. Health companies in the US and Europe are willing to pay big bucks to get turmeric with a curcumin level above 5%. But Indian farmers, who grow most of the world’s supply, can’t cash in. What they produce isn’t that high in curcumin — only about 2%. Meanwhile, other countries, like Fiji, are creeping in, growing more turmeric with higher levels of the compound for Western markets. So what does it take to make a healthier, more valuable turmeric? And is there a way for farmers in India to cash in on Western demand?
00:00 – Intro
1:02 – Harvesting Turmeric
1:24 – Turmeric’s Importance
2:01 – Farmer Ashok
3:43 – Polishing Turmeric
4:20 – Challenges of Turmeric Farming
5:12 – Curcumin
5:41 – Nizamabad Turmeric Market
9:15 – Powdering Turmeric
11:10 – Counterfeit Turmeric & Lead Poisoning
12:33 – Burlap & Barrel
13:26 – Turmeric Bans
13:54 – History of the Turmeric Trade
14:33 – Turmeric Trends in the West
16:01 – Why Indian Turmeric Farmers Can’t Cash In
16:57 – Fiji: The Next Turmeric Frontier?
19:47 – Tariffs on Turmeric
20:19 – Helping India’s Turmeric Farmers
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#Turmeric #curcumin #healthandwellness
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India Grows 80% Of The World’s Turmeric. So Why Are Farmers Struggling? | Big Business | Business Insider
