THIS is with reference to the report ‘The fault in our chillies’ (July 10), which failed to mention that a chilli processing plant and laboratory financed by the United Nations does exist at the site on a plot provided by the Sindh government. It was built in 2017 and is owned by the federal government, but comes under the Small and Medium Enterprises Develop-ment Authority (Smeda).
The management of the plant, based in Karachi, has been fully aware of the problems for long and had once even invited various professional teams to visit the plant and suggest what was needed to be done.
Essentially, the plant consists of a washer, a heat drier and, finally, a crusher to convert the chilli into powder form which is subsequently packaged. The problem with the plant is that the heat source for the drier is wood of which it needs two truck-loads per day. To make it commercially feasible, it was later converted to LPG.
Further, the aflatoxin level, for which it was designed, is 8ppb, which is high for export, and must be brought down to non-detectable levels. This is, indeed, possible. Presently, the city of Guntur in India is the main source of this type of red chilli globally. It works basically because the climate is dry, a massive sorting network is present, and export houses there work with high discipline.
The cost of processing at Kunri is estimated at Rs80 per kg, and the local traders are unwilling to foot the bill. They do not care about aflatoxin levels as their target market does not require quality control. Furthermore, the workforce is undisciplined and untrained. Kunri is damp and more heat is needed to dry the chilli.
The present capacity of the plant is 3,000 tonnes per annum, and it needs refur- bishment and subsequent expansion to 12,000 tonnes per annum to be econo- mically viable. There is an export market as the taste is unique and unmatchable by any competitor in the world. To start as a pilot project for which it is designed, the plant can be restored to a working level. It was pointed out to the plant management that since both the federal and provincial governments are stakeholders, the cost of refurbishment should be borne by them together.
A small enterprise cannot finance it. The owning agency should set the terms for allowing parties to participate in it. It is a unique project and a survey of the world market earlier this year highlighted the fact that international buyers are willing to pay a higher price for this precious spice.
Iqbal Mirza Nazar
Karachi
Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2026
