Food & Heritage · 10 min read

Marayoor Sharkara: The Story of Kerala's GI-Tagged Jaggery

In a rain-shadow valley north of Munnar, sugarcane juice is still boiled in great iron pans over fires of dried cane, and rolled by hand into dark, sweet balls. The history, making and specialty of Marayoor jaggery, and why it earned a Geographical Indication.

By GK Global, Adimali, Munnar · Trails & Tales by GK

Drive north from Munnar towards Marayoor and the land changes. The tea gives way to dry hills, scrub and sandalwood, and then, in the valley floor, to fields of tall green sugarcane. Beside the fields stand small sheds with smoke curling from their roofs. Inside, in the heat and steam, men stir great pans of bubbling cane juice with long wooden paddles. The air smells of caramel and woodsmoke. This is where Marayoor jaggery, Marayoor sharkara, is made, much as it has been for generations.

▶ Video: The Making of Marayoor Jaggery

How Marayoor's GI-tagged jaggery is made from sugarcane in the valley north of Munnar. More in our video gallery

Anchunadu: the five villages

Marayoor lies in a broad valley on the eastern, rain-shadow side of the Western Ghats, at the edge of the Kerala–Tamil Nadu border. The valley is known as Anchunadu, "the five lands", after its five old villages: Marayoor, Kanthalloor, Keezhanthoor, Karayoor and Kottakudi, the last now in Tamil Nadu.

People have lived here for a very long time: the valley is famous for its Iron Age dolmens, its rock paintings and Kerala's only natural sandalwood forest. According to local tradition, many of the present farming families are descended from people who came up from the Madurai country centuries ago, fleeing war on the plains; versions of the story differ on exactly when and why. Whatever their origin, the people of Anchunadu brought with them the language, temples, festivals and farming traditions of the Tamil country, and the valley still has a strong Tamil character. The tradition of growing sugarcane and making jaggery here is often said to be around 400 years old.

Because the valley lies in the rain shadow, it is warm, dry and sunny for much of the year, unlike the wet hills to the west. Its soils, sunshine and cool nights suit sugarcane, which is grown year-round, so jaggery can be made in every season.

How Marayoor jaggery is made

Marayoor jaggery is made not in factories but in about 150 small sheds (aala) on the farms, by hand, using methods that have changed little over generations. Many of the skilled workers who boil and shape the jaggery come from villages around Udumalpet in Tamil Nadu.

1. Harvest. Mature cane, about a year old, is cut, cleaned of leaves and carried to the shed.
2. Crushing. The cane is fed through a crusher, and the juice is collected. The crushed cane, called bagasse, is spread out to dry.
3. Settling and filtering. The juice is left to settle in a drum and filtered, so that soil and fibre are removed.
4. Boiling. The clear juice is poured into a large, shallow pan of iron or copper set over a long furnace. The fire is fed with the dried bagasse from earlier batches, so the cane provides its own fuel. A small amount of lime is added to clarify the juice, and the scum that rises is skimmed off.
5. Judging the moment. As the juice thickens over several hours, the workers stir it constantly with long wooden paddles. Experience tells them when it is ready: a drop of the thick syrup is tested in cold water, and if it sets just right, the pan is taken off the fire.
6. Shaping by hand. The hot concentrate is poured into a wooden trough and stirred as it cools. While it is still warm and soft, workers scoop it up and roll it by hand into balls, often leaving the impressions of their fingers in the jaggery.

The jaggery is then left to cool and harden before it is packed. Smaller amounts are made as liquid jaggery (paani) and powder.

What makes it special

Marayoor jaggery is prized for its deep golden-brown to dark brown colour, its rich, intense sweetness and its clean taste, without the salty edge found in some jaggery. According to the GI registration and the Kerala Agricultural University, it is low in sodium and in insoluble impurities such as soil and fibre, and is described as rich in iron. No artificial colours, bleaching agents or chemicals are added; only a little lime is used to clarify the juice.

In Kerala, Marayoor jaggery is used in traditional sweets such as payasam and sharkara upperi (jaggery-coated banana chips), in temple offerings, in Ayurvedic preparations, and simply in tea and coffee in place of sugar.

The Geographical Indication

A Geographical Indication (GI) is a form of legal protection for products whose quality and reputation come from a particular place, such as Darjeeling tea or Aranmula mirrors. Only producers from that place, following its traditional methods, may use the name.

The campaign for a GI began in the mid-2010s, when cheaper jaggery, much of it from outside the region, began to be sold in Kerala's markets under the Marayoor name, driving down prices for local farmers. Farmers' groups in the valley, with support from the state Agriculture Department and the Intellectual Property Rights cell of the Kerala Agricultural University, applied for the tag. Marayoor jaggery was registered as a Geographical Indication in March 2019, becoming Kerala's ninth GI product. The registration allows genuine producers to take legal action against those who sell other jaggery under the Marayoor name.

Challenges

Despite the GI, the future of Marayoor jaggery is uncertain.

• Shrinking fields. The area under sugarcane has fallen sharply over the past decades; farmers in Kanthalloor say it has roughly halved. Some farmers have switched to other crops, sold land for tourism and housing, or given up farming.
• Wildlife. Elephants, wild pigs and peafowl damage the cane, which takes nearly a year to grow and is hard to protect. (Read our article on human–wildlife conflict.)
• Labour. Making jaggery by hand is hot, hard work, and skilled workers are increasingly hard to find.
• Counterfeits. Jaggery from elsewhere is still sometimes sold as "Marayoor jaggery", and genuine producers struggle to compete on price.

Efforts to help include processing centres, branding by farmers' societies, and sales through government outlets. The best way for buyers to help is to buy from known producers and outlets in the valley itself.