Sources of Price Information for Botanicals

While publicly disclosed trade information for medicinal botanicals is difficult to find, the internet offers some useful sources of price information for the more common botanical commodities, such as spices and essential oils. Here is a sampling of recent spot prices quoted for various culinary spices. These spot prices represent what a buyer would pay in U.S. dollars per pound of delivered and insured spice on a given day. For the full report, which quotes spot prices back through 1997, see this link: http://www.fas.usda.gov/htp/tropical/2001/03-01/spcavg.pdf.

To view the full range of reports provided by USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), check out http://www.fas.usda.gov/htp/tropical/2001/03-01/troptoc.htm. Also see the main FAS Online Commodity Information page at http://www.fas.usda.gov/commodity.html This link can also be found on A-SNAPP's Resources page under the Market Research Links section.

Prices as of 3/01 unless otherwise marked
Information from http://www.fas.usda.gov:80/htp/tropical/2001/03-01/spcavg.pdf

Supported by funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), A-SNAPP is a three-year collaborative project between the Herb Research Foundation (HRF) of Boulder, CO, Rutgers University of New Brunswick, NJ , and Stellenbosch University of South Africa. By providing marketing assistance, quality management, and training, these partner organizations are working to help African growers and entrepreneurs achieve excellence in the production of competitive, world-class natural products.