🇱🇰 India
SPICES
Cardamom
Native to one corner of southern India, priced every morning by public auction, and now grown mostly somewhere else.
Blog
Cardamom vs Cumin
Compare Cardamom (India) and Cumin (Eastern Mediterranean) side by side — origin, maker, price, materials and what the difference actually means.
The short answer
- Country India Eastern Mediterranean
- Region Cardamom Hills, Kerala, India Eastern Mediterranean / Middle East
- Made since Recorded since antiquity; described botanically in 1811 Used since around 2000 BC
- Verified record Yes No
- Source Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew India is the top producer and consumer
- Family Zingiberaceae Apiaceae (Parsley family).
Side by side
Download as PDF| Field | Cardamom | Cumin |
|---|---|---|
| Country | India | Eastern Mediterranean |
| Type | SPICES | SPICES |
| Maker | — | Ancient Egyptian and Levantine cooks |
| Region | Cardamom Hills, Kerala, India | Eastern Mediterranean / Middle East |
| Made since | Recorded since antiquity; described botanically in 1811 | Used since around 2000 BC |
| Verified record | Yes | No |
| Market trend | $26.51/kg (+172.9% since 2016) | — |
| Source | Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | India is the top producer and consumer |
| Family | Zingiberaceae | Apiaceae (Parsley family). |
Cardamom
Cardamom is the dried fruit capsule of Elettaria cardamomum, a plant whose native range Kew records as south-west India alone. It is the third most expensive spice in the world after saffron and vanilla, and almost uniquely among spices its price is set in the open, at daily auctions in Kerala whose results the Spices Board of India publishes the same day.
- Kew records the native range as south-west India and nowhere else; everywhere else it grows, it was carried.
- Each capsule holds 15 to 20 seeds, and the aroma is in the seed, not the pod.
- It is the third most expensive spice in the world, after saffron and vanilla.
- The price is set by public auction in Kerala and published the same day by the Spices Board of India.
- On 14 September 2026 two Kerala auction houses sold about 148 tonnes between them.
Cumin
Cumin seeds have even been found preserved in ancient Egyptian tombs, where they were reportedly used in mummification as well
- India is both the largest producer and largest consumer of cumin worldwide.
Compare