Kochi

What to buy in Kochi

Kochi has traded spices for five centuries, and pepper and cardamom bought on Mattancherry's Bazaar Road are still the classic thing to bring home. Add banana chips fried in coconut oil, Kerala crafts from the fixed-price state emporium, the gold-bordered kasavu handloom, Ayurvedic oils and alcohol-free attars. Here is what to buy, where, and how to judge a fair price.

What to bring back from Kochi

Seven things worth bringing back, and where to buy each.

Spices: pepper, cardamom, cloves

The souvenir Kochi is built on. On Mattancherry's Bazaar Road, the street of the old pepper exchange, retail shops pack whole spices and masala mixes in front of you, next to wholesale godowns still moving sacks by pushcart. Broadway in Ernakulam sells at local prices, and the hypermarket at Lulu Mall has packaged spices if you are short of time.

Banana chips and Kerala snacks

Nendran banana chips fried in coconut oil, tapioca chips and sharkara varatti, banana coated in jaggery. The snack shops around Broadway fry daily; buy from a busy counter and pick sealed packs for the flight. Nendran chips

Kerala crafts at a fixed price

Kairali, the state handicrafts emporium on MG Road, has run since 1968: Kathakali masks, bell-metal urulis (wide cooking vessels), Aranmula-style metal mirrors, wood carving, coir and sandalwood work, all at fixed prices.

Handloom: the kasavu saree and set-mundu

Kerala's cream handloom with a gold border. Chendamangalam, about 35 km north, is a GI-certified weaving cluster; its cooperative societies sell the kasavu saree, set-mundu and plain thorthu towels at their outlets, and will show the looms if you ask ahead.

Ayurvedic oils and soaps

Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala, the charitable Ayurveda institution founded in 1902, has a store on MG Road selling oils, herbal powders, soaps and skincare at fixed prices. Staff advise on standard preparations; anything like treatment needs a doctor's consultation. Ayurveda in Kochi

Attars, alcohol-free perfume oils

At the SPR Perfume Museum on Jew Town Road you sample sandalwood, jasmine, vetiver or cardamom attars without being rushed. Small bottles start at about ₹500.

Sweets and books

Pandhal's spice-matured plum cake and Kunju's pineapple jam roll (since 1931) are Kochi's bakery classics, both in Panampilly Nagar. For books on Kerala and India, Idiom on Bastion Street and Kochi Books off Princess Street in Fort Kochi; Kochi Books ships worldwide. Bookshops

Where to shop

Jew Town and Mattancherry are the tourist shopping street: antiques, curios, spices, perfume and textiles along Jew Town Road and Synagogue Lane, with Crafters, a former spice warehouse full of temple carvings, brass and colonial furniture, at the heart of the antiques row; it can arrange shipping. Shops shut by six. Princess Street in Fort Kochi has the bookshops and boutiques (Princess Street). Broadway and Ernakulam Market, opposite Marine Drive, is where Kochi itself shops: a century-old pedestrian grid of spice stores, textiles and household goods at local prices. MG Road has the fixed-price state emporium and the Ayurveda store, and Lulu Mall in Edappally, next to the metro, is the air-conditioned option. More: markets in Kochi.

Check the fixed price, then bargain

Start at Kairali on MG Road, where nothing is negotiable, and note what a mask, an uruli or a carving properly costs. Then go to Mattancherry knowing the shape of a fair price: bargaining is expected in the curio shops there, not at the state emporium or the Ayurveda store.

Antiques and the export rules

Under India's Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972, an antiquity is in general an object at least a hundred years old (a manuscript or record, at least seventy-five), and only the Central Government or an agency it authorises may export one. The Archaeological Survey of India also issues non-antiquity certificates: ASI, antiquities.

FAQ

What is Kochi famous for to buy?

Spices from Mattancherry, banana chips, Kerala crafts such as Kathakali masks and bell-metal urulis, the kasavu saree, Ayurvedic oils and alcohol-free attars.

Where can I buy spices in Kochi?

On Bazaar Road in Mattancherry, where shops pack them in front of you, or at local prices on Broadway in Ernakulam.

Is bargaining expected in Kochi?

In the Mattancherry curio and antique shops, yes. Not at Kairali, the state emporium, or at the Ayurveda store, where prices are fixed.

Can I take antiques home from India?

Under the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972, antiquities (in general, objects at least a hundred years old) may be exported only by the Central Government or an agency it authorises. The Archaeological Survey of India issues non-antiquity certificates.

Where can I buy a Kerala kasavu saree near Kochi?

At the weavers' cooperative outlets in Chendamangalam, about 35 km north, a GI-certified handloom cluster where the looms can be seen on request.

Are Ayurvedic products from Kochi worth buying?

From an established maker, yes: Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala on MG Road sells oils, powders and soaps at fixed prices. Treatment itself needs a doctor's consultation.

Sources (8)

Facts checked: 15 October 2026. Prices and hours are approximate; check locally.

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