A 54-year-old dry chilli trading firm, Hampali Traders, in Hubballi, Karnataka, is setting up India’s only dedicated website — SpiceExtra.in — for the commodity. The digital platform aims to aid research and development (R&D) in the commodity, besides helping the user industry.

“We plan the digitisation of price and arrivals details, crop survey, assaying and branding. We have collected digital data for the past four years,” said Basavaraj Hampali, Director of Innovation, Hampali Traders.

The spice and oleoresin industries need to have complete details on dry chilli inventory, cultivation, and yield and the different varieties that are planted.

“We at SpiceExtra.in have been working on these lines using data science since 2018. We gather continuous data through our in-house field survey team, vast farmers’ network, weather department and others. This data is processed using our smart software system, to bring out meaningful insights,” he said.

The efforts of Hampali Traders and SpiceExtra.in will count for the user industry as there is a lack of digital data, particularly on the commodity’s inventory, cultivation and yield.

“For example, when chilli prices increased from ₹30,000 to ₹45,000 a quintal in 2021, many consuming industries were caught unaware. These user firms need to plan ahead their procurement and production,” said Basavaraj.

As a first step, Hamapali Traders has accumulated data on dry chilli production in Karnataka. “The Spices Board and consuming companies such as Synthite Industries have come forward to collaborate with our efforts and help publish all reports,” he said.

Hampali has begun gathering data from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh over the past year.

The data on dry chilli will have laboratory test reports on the features of each dry chilli variety, which can be used for research and development.