Cinnamon export from India

Overview

Cinnamon in the strict sense is the inner bark of Cinnamomum zeylanicum (also written C. verum), the "true" or Ceylon-type species, and its most commercially important feature is what it lacks: it is very low in coumarin, the naturally occurring compound that is regulated in food because of liver-toxicity concerns at high chronic intake. This is the single fact that separates true cinnamon from cassia in a serious sourcing conversation, and under EU contaminant rules coumarin carries defined maximum levels in cinnamon-containing foods, which is why the species on the label is not a cosmetic distinction (eurlex915).

True cinnamon is also physically distinct. The bark is harvested from young shoots and the thin, papery inner bark is rolled by hand into fragile, multi-layered "quills" that are tan-brown, brittle and easily crumbled, quite unlike the thick, hard single-curl bark of cassia. The aroma is delicate, sweet and citrus-floral rather than the hot, blunt punch of cassia, and the quills are graded on the traditional grade ladder of the Ceylon-type trade (the finer, paler, more tightly rolled grades sitting above the coarser ones).

India is a minor cinnamon origin against Sri Lanka, which dominates true-cinnamon supply, and much of the true cinnamon moving through Indian trade is grown in the far south or handled alongside re-exported material, so origin should be verified rather than assumed. India lists cinnamon and cassia as two separate scheduled spices precisely because they are different species with different coumarin profiles, and a buyer specifying "cinnamon" for a coumarin-sensitive market must pin the species, not rely on the common name.

Growing regions

True cinnamon in India is grown mainly in the humid south, in pockets of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, on a much smaller scale than Sri Lanka. Harvest centres on the wet season when the bark peels cleanly from the young shoots, and the quality of the peel and hand-rolling determines the grade. Because Indian true-cinnamon volumes are limited, some material in Indian trade is re-exported, so grown-in-India origin should be confirmed where it matters.

Sourcing & export considerations

• Available as quills (rolled sticks), quillings/featherings/chips, ground powder, and bark and leaf oil and oleoresin through the extraction trade
• The decisive sourcing decision is species: for a coumarin-sensitive market, contract explicitly for Cinnamomum zeylanicum (true/Ceylon-type) and require it not be substituted with cassia
• For EU-bound cinnamon products, specify coumarin testing against the applicable food-category limits and keep the certificate of analysis on file (eurlex915)
• Quills are fragile and bulky and cube out (fill volume before weight), so packaging and careful loading protect grade and margin; chips and ground forms ship denser
• Cleaning, sorting and any microbial-reduction (steam) treatment are coordinated with vetted third-party facilities, not performed in-house
• MOQ follows trade practice: sample lots around 50-100 kg, private-label from about 100 kg per variant, larger runs by tonnage (cbi)
• Confirm grown-in-India versus re-exported origin on the contract, since India is a minor true-cinnamon origin and Sri Lanka dominates supply
• Cinnamon reports under HS 0906 alongside cassia, so a clean species-level bilateral volume is not consistently separable
• For EU and US buyers, specify pesticide-residue and microbial testing in addition to the coumarin and species requirements