Men, in pairs, take turns stirring the liquids in two huge troughs—one filled with what looks like thick, molten gold and the other, a muddy, brown liquid— with gigantic, iron spatulas in a thatched shed on the Marayur-Kanthalloor road, near Munnar. While one, rectangular and more flat, is filled with thickening jaggery; the other, gigantic wok is filled with frothing, boiling sugarcane juice. What is being made here is the famed Marayur sharkara (jaggery), which was recently granted the Geographical Indication (GI) tag.
The GI tag gives this organic jaggery, made using traditional processes, a unique identity. The peculiar location of Marayur gives it its distinctive qualities.
The Marayur-Kanthalloor stretch is dotted with jaggery-making ‘units’ such as this, these are usually attached to sugarcane farms and owned, mostly, by sugarcane farmers. “My father and my grandfather before him, have all been doing this,” says A Manikandan, a sugarcane farmer, who also has a jaggery-making unit.
“The best sarkaraperatti chips (jaggery coated plantain chips) are made of Marayur sharkara , it is so sweet there is not a hint of saltiness, which makes it perfect,” says retired teacher Leela Gopinatha Menon, who has been using this jaggery for years. This sweetness is what defines the jaggery. The process is traditional, sans chemicals or preservatives of any kind. In fact, it comes with a shelf-life of a few months (some manufacturers say three months or more if refrigerated). “This is proof of the fact that we do not use anything artificial,” says Manikandan, which explains why some of his buyers are Ayurveda firms.
Marayur, on the north of Munnar, is probably the only place in the State which has natural sandalwood forests and also, sugarcane cultivation. According to the Kerala Forests Department website, sugarcane is the major crop of Marayur and neighbouring Kanthalloor with close to 2,500 acres of land under cultivation.
With these units located practically on the roadside, they are tourist attractions as well. In fact, they figure on tour operators’ itinerary. Some of these sell sugarcane juice, which inevitably draws the curious tourist into the unit. We are at Subhash’s unit, who is a sugarcane farmer-cum-jaggery maker. A textile diploma holder, he worked elsewhere, but returned to Marayur to the family trade.
He explains the process as he keeps an eye on workers stirring the contents of the troughs, fired by a concealed fire. Each of these units has around four to five workers.
Thick, gold-coloured liquid in the flat trough, in need of constant stirring, thickens to the required consistency. “It takes three-four hours for the sugarcane juice to become a concentrate. We make balls out of the thick concentrate while it still hot. We are used to the heat, you may find it unbearable!” Subhash says. The jaggery is also known undasharakara (round jaggery).
While in the other bigger pan, sugarcane juice froths as it boils. “It is molasses, which is scooped out. We can retain it, but the process would take longer, traditionally we take most of it out,” says Manikandan.
Each of these units manufacture around 600 kilos a day, cooked in batches in a round the clock operation. From juice to jaggery—the process takes close to 4-5 hours, says Mani. His unit works, “at least 360 days a year, of course there is heavy rain then there is no production.” Slaked lime, added to the sugarcane juice, is used to remove impurities.
The Intellectual Property Rights cell of the Kerala Agriculture University (KAU), has campaigned for the GI tag. The tag would protect the jaggery from duplication as action could be taken against those who manufacture the fake. It would also get the jaggery acceptance internationally.
Fakes are a risk that the product runs. The availability of duplicate versions has cut the prices of the original, to the extent of making sugarcane farming unviable for some farmers. A dip in prices of the jaggery has caused some farmers to give up sugarcane and turn to vegetable farming instead. “I don’t sell to wholesale dealers because often duplicates are made by mixing our jaggery with the other kind and passing the mix off as Marayur sharkara . It is sold cheap and cuts our prices. This GI tag is good, but what we want is fixed price so that we are also protected,” says Manikandan.
