Focus: a key industry which links Kochi to the rest of the world - the spice trade. Key learning objectives: to explore the spice trade in Kochi - the many different people involved from local farmers through to exporters based in Mattancherry; to explore the production of one spice (pepper) in particular. Summary: Ajay visits the Spices Board in Ernakulum to find out about the many different spices produced in Kerala. He travels on a river boat along the 'backwaters' that surround the city to visit a local spice farm, where he sees pepper vines and curry leaves being grown. He goes to Bazaar Road in Mattancherry - the very centre of the spce industry in Kochi - to visit one of the main pepper exporting companies. He signs off from the beach at Fort Cochin, where a cargo ship is slowly making its way out to sea...perhaps bound for the UK. Story: 'The Kochi Kid' (part 2). The campaign started by the three children gathers momentum...but will it be enough to save the holy banyan tree?
Off in search of spices down the beautiful Keralan backwaters
Listen to an extract from the series
