India Identifies 26 Markets to Expand Rice Exports Challenging Pakistan & Thailand’s Dominance

India has identified 26 markets for expanding rice exports, territories currently dominated by competitors such as Pakistan and Thailand, said Dev Garg, Vice President of the Indian Rice Exporters Federation (IREF) today. These markets together import rice worth an estimated ₹1.8 lakh crore from non-Indian suppliers, he said.

The list includes the United States, Indonesia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, China, Japan and Brazil.

Abhishek Dev, Chairman of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), noted that Japan currently imports around 800 units of rice but remains an underexplored market for India. “There is clear scope to increase India’s share, not only in Japan but also in the US and Vietnam,” he added.

The strategy aims to capture a meaningful slice of these non-Indian purchases through targeted product–market fit initiatives and quicker contracting cycles. For instance, the US market for dishes such as jambalaya and rice pudding could be served by Indian varieties like Kola Joha and Govindobhog, respectively.

To consolidate its position in the global rice supply chain, the Department of Commerce under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has announced the Bharat International Rice Conference (BIRC) 2025, to be held at Bharat Mandapam from 30–31 October 2025.

“India has overtaken China to become the world’s largest rice producer this year. We have been the top exporter for several years, and with a strong harvest this season, we aim to expand our footprint across more markets,” said Prem Garg, National President of IREF.

For the first time, the event will also showcase an AI-powered colour sorter-cum-grader machine—technology expected to strengthen India’s agri-infrastructure and improve quality control. The innovation could, for example, reduce the share of broken white rice in the public distribution system from 25% to 10%.

India produced around 150 million tonnes of rice in 2024–25 from nearly 47 million hectares, accounting for roughly 28% of global output. In FY25, India exported 20.1 million metric tonnes of rice worth about $12.95 billion to 172 countries.