Fake variety leaves bitter taste in palm jaggery market

A group of men with baskets filled with palm jaggery, traditional brown sugar, line the highway on the outskirts of Madurai waiting for customers who might still prefer the sweetener to the factory-made refined white sugar. With the increasing number of diabetics, traditional palm jaggery is back in favour for its health properties. However, there is stiff competition from its fake version. The industry is a unorg anised and palm jaggery is mostly sold by vendors who set up shop on the roadsides of towns across Tamil Nadu. They procure the traditional sweet in large quantities from Udangudi in Tuticorin district and set out in minitrucks for various parts of the state.They sell palm jaggery, sugar, and ginger-flavoured jaggery pricing it from `250 to `350 per kilogram. “We travel throughout Tamil Nadu and Kerala,“ says one of the vendors, A Subramanian. According to them, there are nearly hundred such mini-trucks operating from areas like Udangudi, Sayalkudi in Ramanathapuram and Srivilliputhur in Virudhunagar. “Of late there is lot of demand for palm jaggery and Udangudi is famous for its brand name,“ says S Seenipandi, among the more prominent of the vendors.

Till the 1960s, farmers used to prepare jaggery in their homes after extracting the sap from palm trees.“From being a product that was made in every household, palm jaggery has become a rarity and finding one of good quality is a challenge“, he said.But the bigger headache is the fake jaggery made of sugar syrup. The Udangudi town panchayat president K Jayakumar says most of the jaggery sold from these mini-trucks is not genuine. “There is a growing industry manufacturing fake jaggery in Udangudi,“ he said. In its glory days, Udangudi used to produce 1,000 tonnes of palm sugar in one season that extended from March to August.“The fake jaggery manufacturing units function round the year produc ing 10 tonnes of jaggery a day , so it's not possible to keep up with the competition,“ rues Jayakumar.

“As demand for palm jaggery surges, the state government needs to play a greater role to ensure that palm trees are well maintained, workers are paid better and stop manufacture of fake jaggery,“ says C Nallusamy of Tamil Nadu toddy movement.

Nutritionists say palm jaggery is better than refined white sugar as it has lower glycemic index. “Since it is raw, the body takes some time to absorb palm jaggery when compared to refined sugar. The iron and minerals in it are beneficial too,“ says S Cynthia, assistant professor of food science at Arul Anandar College.However there is no scientific evidence on the benefits of palm jaggery . But traditional medicine like ayurveda and Siddha use it as an ingredient for various medicines.“Diabetes patients suffer from a lot of deficiencies and the palm sugar replenishes them since it has got iron, calcium, minerals and vitamins,“ says Siddha practitioner Dr S Kamaraj.