market Intelligence (Ginger)

Domestic demand

Fresh ginger

Most fresh ginger is consumed locally in Asia. However, due to rising Asian immigrant populations, there has been an increasing demand for fresh ginger in Western Europe and Northern America. The United States brings in fresh ginger produced in Hawaii. Other sources of fresh ginger to the United States are South and Central American countries: Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Dried ginger

The country of production determines the types of ginger available to spice importers: Indian (Cochin and Calicut), Chinese, African (Nigeria and Sierra Leone), Jamaican, and Australian. Indian (Cochin) and Jamaican gingers have a reputation of a high quality, with a light color and delicate flavor.38,42 Cochin ginger has a light yellow color while Calicut is more reddish-brown; both have a delicate odor and flavor, with some lemon-like aroma13,21; Indian ginger is mostly exported washed and dried, unpeeled or roughly peeled.
African ginger is darker in color and higher in monoterpene content, giving a more pungent aroma with camphoraceous notes; it has a high oil content and level of pungency, therefore it is usually preferred for the production of oils and oleoresins.