Year: 2019 and 2027
Market size: $5.86 billion and $9.70 billion, respectively
I went into the garden in the morning dusk,
When sorrow enveloped me like a cloud;
And the breeze brought to my nostril the odor of spices,
As balm of healing for a sick soul.
— Moses ibn Ezra
What comes to mind when you hear the word “spice”? In autumn, the first thing that may come to mind is “pumpkin spice” and the warmth of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice. The smell of spices can be evocative, bringing back memories of a place visited, a beloved family recipe, or a special meal enjoyed with friends and family around the dinner table. Today’s market size shows worldwide revenues for spices in 2019 and projected for 2027.
Spices have been used as far back as 5000 B.C.E. Throughout the millennia they’ve been used as medicine and to promote health as well as to flavor and preserve food. They’ve been highly valued as trade goods for thousands of years. The spice trade developed around 2000 B.C.E. on the Indian subcontinent with cinnamon and pepper and in East Asia with herbs and pepper. Egyptians used spices for embalming. Their demand for exotic herbs and spices helped fuel global trade. Alexandria became the main trading center as Indonesian merchants traveled around China, India, the Middle East, and the east coast of Africa and Arab merchants traveled through the Middle East and India.
During the Middle Ages, spices were among the most expensive and highly demanded products in Europe. They became status symbols and signs of luxury among the wealthiest citizens. Spiced wine was popular. The most common spices in demand were black pepper, cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. Explorers to the New World brought back allspice, capsicum peppers, and vanilla. By 1700, the importance of spices began to wane as Europeans preferred coffee, chocolate, and tobacco. The United States entered the spice trade in the latter part of the 18th-century trading salmon, codfish, tobacco products, flour, soap, candles, butter, cheese, and beef for spices. Salem, Massachusetts profited tremendously from the Sumatra pepper trade. Most of the pepper was re-exported to Europe or sent for processing and distribution to Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore. By the mid-1800s an overproduction of spices and the Civil War brought an end to the pepper trade. More recently, pepper shortages have raised prices in many parts of the world.
Spices are seeds, dried fruits, roots, and barks. They’re mostly used to add flavor, aroma, and color to foods. They’re also used in medicines, dyes, cosmetics, and perfumes. The most popular spice in the world is cumin. In the United States, cinnamon, ginger, and black pepper are the most popular. Powdered spices claimed more than 50% of global revenues in 2019 owing to their versatility and long shelf life. They also don’t have to be refrigerated. However, increasingly consumers are preferring whole spices to provide fresher flavors to their food. This segment of the market is expected to grow the fastest from 2020 to 2027. There has been a rising demand for ready-to-cook spice mixes also both for home use and in the foodservice industry. These save busy consumers time when preparing meals at home and provide a consistent flavor profile in recipes. Newer mixes that provide aromatic and fusion flavors are becoming more popular as people seek out more exotic foods. Demand for spices is also expected to increase as spice manufacturers advertise on social media platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter encouraging people to try various spices in recipes at home.
Many spices have antioxidants, substances that protect cells from damage. Some doctors and dietitians advocate adding spices to one’s diet to get added health benefits. Some people incorporate cinnamon into their diet to lower blood pressure, turmeric to fight inflammation, ginger to relieve nausea, cayenne (capsaicin) to ease pain, cumin to boost the immune system, and garlic for heart health and to lower cholesterol and triglycerides. In traditional medicine, black cumin has been used to treat asthma, diabetes, hypertension, fever, inflammation, bronchitis, dizziness, eczema, and gastrointestinal disturbances.
Studies on the health effects of spices generally focus on spices in the form of supplements although some doctors caution against taking commercial spice supplements that have not been independently verified by a third-party organization because they’re not regulated and may not contain what they say they do. Several spices are currently being investigated in preclinical, clinical, and therapeutic trials as new treatments for several diseases, including cancer. Perhaps in the future new spice-based drugs will be developed.
The Asia Pacific region is a leading producer and exporter of spices garnering more than a 35% revenue share in 2019. Most spices are grown in India, Vietnam, China, and Thailand, with China being one of the largest consumers of spices in the region. Over the last few years, Indian spices have seen a surge in demand worldwide. Leading spice manufacturers include Ajinomoto Co. Inc., Associated British Foods plc, Ariake Japan Co. Ltd., Baria Pepper, Kerry Group, The Bart Ingredients Co. Ltd., DS Group, Everest Spices, Dohler Group, and McCormick & Company Inc.
Sources: “Spices Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Product (Pepper, Turmeric), by Form (Powder, Whole, Chopped & Crushed), by Region (North America, Europe, APAC, CSA, MEA), and Segment Forecasts, 2020 – 2027,” Grand View Research Report Summary, October 2020 available online here; “Spices Market Size Worth $9.70 Billion by 2027 | CAGR: 6.5%: Grand View Research, Inc.,” CISION PR Newswire, October 12, 2020 available online here; “Spice,” Wikipedia, October 13, 2020 available online here; “The Most Used Herbs Across the Globe,” Urban Cultivator available online here; “History of the Spice Trade,” History & Special Collections, UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, 2002 available online here; Alexander Yashin, Yakov Yashin, Xiaoyan Xia, and Boris Nemzer, “Antioxidant Activity of Spices and Their Impact on Human Health: A Review,” Antioxidants, September 15, 2017 available online here; “5 Spices With Healthy Benefits,” Johns Hopkins Medicine available online here; Krishnapura Srinivasan, “Cumin (Cuminum cyminum) and Black Cumin (Nigella Sativa) Seeds: Traditional Uses, Chemical Constituents, and Nutraceutical Effects,” Food Quality and Safety, Oxford Academic, March 2018 available online here; “Seasoning and Spices Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Product (Herbs, Salt & Salts Substitutes, Spices), by Application, by Region, and Segment Forecasts, 2020 – 2027,” Grand View Research Report Summary, July 2020 available online here.Image source: Herbolario Allium, “Cuminum cyminum,” Wikimedia Commons, May 1, 2012, available online here. Creative Commons License CC BY 2.0.