Special Report: Tracing Basmati's Export Journey In 2009
Jan 21,2010 00:00 by newseditor
After a lot of mud slinging over Basmati patent rights and with no consensus on Indopak Joint Basmati registration, the year 2009 has been an exciting journey for Indian Basmati manufacturers, traders and exports overall. The year started with Indian exporters trying to search for new avenues for Basmati rice and specially looking at China as a prized destination.

On the one hand as Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda) tried hard to get a Geographical Indications for 'Basmati' to help protect against unscrupulous patenting of the grain, export demand for Indian basmati rice saw a revival backed by rising demand from west Asian countries specially Iran.

Iran, along with neighbor Iraq, emerged as a prime favorite with Indian basmati exporters for several reasons. One, Iranians bought large quantities of parboiled Pusa 1121 and with its own farming in doldrums, Iran was increasingly dependent on the world market to supply it long grain aromatic rice.

Iranians effectively and swiftly undercut the Saudis, who controlled international basmati market for over a decade, much to the delight of the Indian exporters. The entry of Iran with its swift payment schedules and good buying capacity surely managed to undercut the Saudi Basmati market with more and more companies shifting business to Iran rather than the tough bargaining Saudi Arabia. Iran surely added a new kick to the basmati game. Europe was no longer the aspirational premium market and Saudi Arabia the feared bully.

Then came the twist in the tale with reports emerging in the local Iranian media that the government of Iran had banned imports of basmati rice from India after detecting arsenic and cadmium contamination. After a series of frenzy discussions, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research finally put the matter to rest saying that the statements in the Iranian press were erroneous, incorrect and misleading.


With the MEP rise for Basmati still a riddle India did manage to export over 2.5 million MT of Basmati to Iran alone. The trend seems to be continuing as of now with exporters willing to pay farmers great prices for the new basmati crop harvested in November in anticipation of profits. But whether they make money or not would depend on the new MEP in January.