Bumper crops of the Sundari chilli since the early nineties has eroded the importance of the Calcutta chilli market for eastern India.

However, there has been little effort on the part of the state government towards providing scientific support to the farmers. The trade is mostly controlled by unregistered touts.

Around 32,000 tonnes of sundari chillies are produced in the 24 Paraganas district of West Bengal every year.

Sundari chillies are procured by people from neighbouring states like Bihar, Tripura and even Bangladesh, directly from the growers in the district avoiding the sales tax net of the state.

In fact, the chilli is mostly consumed out side West Bengal. And, though it passes through Calcutta, very little is bought by Calcutta-based wholesalers.

This year, in abid to boost the chilli trade, the government withdrew the purchase tax on chilli. However, since there was no tax collecting authority, hardly any money was coming into the state coffers by way of purchase tax on Sundari chillies.

Till the early nineties, around 15,000 tonnes of red chillies used to come to Calcutta every year from Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Bihar. At present only chillies from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh come to Calcutta.

Chillies Aratdar Association secretary Ashok Kar said, "The guntur chilli retains its flavour for at least six months while this loses its flavour in three days due to improper processing. The seeds were the same and potentially the Sundari could be a foreign exchange earner if the state government took greater care of it."

Heat wave has taken its toll and the production has fallen this year, driving up the prices of Sundari chilli. Around 16-20 trucks of Sundari chilli are arriving in the Calcutta markets every week.The prices are ranging aroundRs 40-43 per kg, as against the Guntur chilli prices in Calcutta of Rs 46 per kg. There used to be a huge gap between the Sundari and the Guntur prices, however, the low production this year has led to the hike.

Kar says, "Most of the produce, worth Rs 80 crore, is illegally transferred to different states as well as Bangladesh. Only about five per cent of the produce used to be sold legally paying the sales tax of the state. However, after the purchase tax was withdrawn the commission agents are not getting any Sundari chilli at all.

"The commission agents are dealers registered under the sales tax act who operate on a commission basis between the buyer and the seller. However, Sundari chillies are available at the Burra Bazar wholesale market in Calcutta. They are, however, sold by unregistered dealers.