Availability and Spread

The trees are primarily distributed in tropical countries and are grown in dry places. Undivided MP has a potential to produce 5000 MT of Amla per year generating an employment of 1.25 lakh person days. An estimate done between 1981 – 86 show that while forest circles in Chhatisgarh accounted for nearly 50% production of erstwhile undivided MP, it accounted for more then 75% in terms of revenue indicating better quality of Amla in the former state.

Now a days it has been observed that Amla occurs sparingly in forests. This is blamed on unsustainable harvesting practices and lack of any promotional aspects. In some areas of Chhatisgarh, though there are farmers who grow Amla in private land, at the same time there are areas where it is not even collected from trees in forest due to lack of selling opportunities. FD does not consider Amla as plantation species.

Production and Pricing

Being a non-nationalised produce, it is difficult to get figures for Amla in a consolidated from. The trade through Mandis of Bastar division however can give some estimate of its potential.

Figure : Trading oF Amla in Mandis of Bastar Division (in MT)

As can be seen from above, the production or rather transaction of Amla in Bastar district has reduced over the years. There could be two reasons – that traders are not channelising Amla through Mandis or the production is really going down over the years. While the former cause cannot be ruled out, some researchers feel that amla production has gone down significantly due to unsustainable harvesting practices.

Trade aspects

Trade of dried Amla mostly takes place in Mandis of Raigarh, Dhamtari, and Raipur. Dhamtari is one of the main markets for trade of Amla in the country. Amla is traded in both seeded and deseeded form.

With commencement of fruiting season in January, kutchias, the tribal agents start arriving in villages. The traders announce collection rates and ask villagers to start plucking. Payment is done on cash basis. The trader then transports these Amla either directly or through commission agents to industries. There might be 2-3 more levels between kutchias and industry depending on location of the village.