Yeah that almost has to be a mistake, right? Also surprised by the lack of Mexico. Most of the spices popular around the world originated there and it's a big country that eats a lot of spicy food. But not as spicy as Thai food of course. Brazil was another curious omission.
As far as I can tell, there are only 66 countries in the data set, and Brazil is not there at all. And I almost feel like even the data that is available is wrong. According to the source, Thailand produced 3095 metric tons. It's hard to believe that Bangladesh produces 100 times as much spice as Thailand.
This random quiz has made me quite curious. What an odd assortment of numbers and countries. Makes me want to go down a rabbit hole and find out which spices each country is making.
Some of the "surprises" are very likely just the result of bad data. Please keep in mind that ag data reported by the the UN Food and Agriculture Organization is what the countries themselves report, generally not vigorously challenged. Same is true as relevant for other UN agencies. But as surprises go, I would have expected to see Egypt on this list. And Syria???