After a decade of fluctuating cardamom yields and relatively low prices, the last few years have seen a significant uptick in the production of large or black cardamom in North Sikkim, one of Sikkim’s four districts. In 2020, India accounted for slightly over 8 per cent of the world’s cardamom (large and small) exports, valued at $114 million – a jump of almost 100 per cent from 2019.

The relatively tiny North Sikkim also punched well over its weight in helping displace Nepal as the world’s leading producer of large cardamom.