The varieties that actually grow

Start with the breeding institutions rather than the trade, because the figures are published and checkable. These are the varieties that occupy Indian land:

What that means when you buy

This is a disclosure against our own commercial interest, and it is the single most useful thing on this page.

For the overwhelming majority of buyers, a trade name is not a defect and not a deception. You are buying a performance profile — how the grain looks on the shelf, how it mills, how it behaves in the pot — and a properly written specification describes that profile far better than any name does. The problem arises in exactly three situations:

• You assumed you were buying verified varietal identity, and priced it accordingly. If the name carried a premium in your costing, you overpaid for a word.
• Your pack or your tender makes a varietal claim you would have to defend to a regulator, an auditor or a customer. “100% Sona Masoori” on a retail bag is a claim; be sure you can evidence it.
• Your end use genuinely depends on the variety — seed multiplication, a research programme, a protected designation, a recipe standardised to one grain.

If you are in one of those three, say so in the enquiry and write it into the contract, and ask us precisely how it will be evidenced. If you are not, stop negotiating over the name and start specifying the grain. The sections on grain classification and specification below are how.

HMT, and the farmer who bred it

HMT is one of the most traded non-basmati names in the domestic market and a growing one in export. Its origin is not a breeding station.

Dadaji Ramaji Khobragade (17 May 1939 – 3 June 2018) farmed at Nanded village, Nagbhid taluka, Chandrapur district, Maharashtra. Around 1983 he noticed a single plant of unusual appearance with yellowish seeds in his field of the variety Patel 3. He saved it, grew it out and selected from it over successive seasons; by 1990 the result was being called HMT, and it outyielded what was then available.

In 1994 he gave his material to scientists at Punjabrao Krishi Vidyapeeth. The university released PKV-HMT in the late 1990s. Khobragade said his variety had been appropriated; the university said it had sourced the material from him and improved it scientifically. The dispute was never resolved, and the university did not credit him in its varietal release proposal. He went on to develop at least nine varieties, among them Nanded Chinur (1987), Nanded 92, Nanded Heera (1994), Vijay Nanded (1996), Deepak Ratna (1997), DRK (1998) and DRK Sugandhi (2003). He received National Innovation Foundation recognition in 2003–04, a national award for HMT in 2005, the Maharashtra government’s Krishibhushan award, and a place on a Forbes list of India’s powerful rural entrepreneurs in 2010. In 2012 HMT and DRK were registered under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority as Dadaji HMT, with rights transferred to the National Innovation Foundation for Rs 1 lakh. He died on 3 June 2018, having sold land to pay for his son’s medical treatment and unable to meet his own hospital bills.

The 27 GI-registered rices, and what you can realistically buy

India’s Geographical Indications register lists 27 rice entries across thirteen states and union territories. These are the names that carry legal origin protection — unlike Sona Masoori, Ponni or IR64, which carry none. The official register, with application numbers and filing dates:

Two of these are worth a closer look because they come up in enquiries.

• Wada Kolam, also called Jhini, from the Palghar region of Maharashtra, received its GI in 2021. It is a traditional small off-white grain valued for aroma, taste and light texture, and it is explicitly a low-yielding crop, selling domestically at roughly Rs 60–70 per kilogram.
• Bhandara Chinoor was registered on 1 July 2023, valid to 30 April 2030, to the Bhandara Chinoor Dhan Utpadak Sangh, Pauni, through the GI Registry at Chennai. It is a non-basmati aromatic medium grain, firm and non-sticky after cooking, with a high elongation ratio, aroma carried by 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, and a stated shelf life of 18 months. The neighbouring Balaghat Chinnor in Madhya Pradesh took its own GI in September 2021.

Grain classification: contract on Codex, and name the option

Since the names carry less information than buyers assume, the grain description has to carry more. Codex Standard 198 is the right framework because both parties can look it up.

The two options can disagree, and for the medium-grain South Indian rices they do. Peer-reviewed measurements of Samba Mahsuri give a milled kernel length of 4.17 mm, breadth 1.40 mm and a ratio of 2.78 — which is short grain by length and medium grain by ratio, and long grain by neither. A contract that says “medium grain per Codex” without naming the option is a dispute waiting to happen: the buyer’s lab measures length, the seller measured ratio, and both are right.

So: state the measured average milled length in millimetres, the length-to-width ratio, and which Codex option governs. That one step removes most varietal argument from a rice contract.

Cooking behaviour: amylose is the number that predicts the pot

Amylose content is described in the literature as the major determinant of rice texture, and it predicts behaviour better than any single adjective. FAO’s classification of milled rice:

Two practical notes. First, gelatinisation temperature matters as much as amylose for a cook: Samba Mahsuri’s alkali spreading value of 1 indicates a high gelatinisation temperature, so it needs more water and a longer cook than intermediate-GT IR64. A buyer switching between them on the same water ratio will get a poor result and blame the rice. Second, amylose varies with growing environment, season and method, so treat published figures as representative of the class and ask for a measured value on the shipped lot if your process depends on it.

Forms, which matter more than variety for most uses

Codex defines the broken fractions precisely, which is worth knowing because this is the most argued line in a rice contract: large broken is under 3/4 but over 1/2 of whole-kernel length; medium broken 1/2 or less but over 1/4; small broken 1/4 or less that does not pass a 1.4 mm round-perforation sieve; and chips pass that sieve.

Where the trade is moving: Asia out, West Africa in

India’s non-basmati destinations, 2025-26

APEDA reports 15.01 million MT worth Rs 51,892.32 crore, about US$5.82 billion: Benin 11.5%, Bangladesh 9.3%, Guinea 6.6%, Togo 6.6%, Côte d’Ivoire 5.4%. Four of the top five are West African.

Three large Asian buyers have pulled back

• Indonesia imported no rice in 2025 — its agriculture minister announced a Bulog stockpile of 3.7 million tonnes in December 2025, the largest since Bulog was founded in 1967 — and in January 2026 the National Food Agency confirmed no rice or sugar imports for consumption, and no feed corn, in 2026, on national stocks of about 12.5 million tonnes.
• The Philippines suspended imports of regular milled and well-milled rice from 1 September 2025 to year end, falling about 30 percent for the year from 4.8 million MT in 2024 to 3.37 million MT, before reopening in January 2026 with 3.6 to 3.8 million MT planned and the tariff raised from 15 to 20 percent.
• Bangladesh, India’s second destination, saw rice imports fall 22.5 percent in FY2025-26 to about US$529 million from US$682 million, on domestic production estimated at about 42.7 million tonnes against 40.4 million the year before.

West Africa grew through the same period

For context on the whole: global rice trade in 2026 is projected at a record 62.8 million tonnes, up 3.1 million on 2025, with Indian 5% brokens quoted around US$360 per tonne in early 2026 and Indian production at 152 million tonnes for 2025/26.

Packing: private labelling from 1 kg to 50 kg, and bulk shipments

RNG Agro Exports provides private labelling from 1 kg pack size to 50 kg pack size, and we do bulk shipments as well. Across a range this wide the pack format often matters more than the variety, because it changes the specification and not just the appearance.

Private label work covers artwork and printing, language versions, nutrition and ingredient panels, barcodes, and country-specific labelling requirements, which differ sharply between a West African, a Gulf, a European and a North American pack — and which include the rules governing any varietal or nutrition claim. Tell us the destination market and the channel when you enquire.

Specification: what should be in the contract

Arsenic, EU border controls and Indian policy risk

Arsenic

Under Regulation (EU) 2023/465 amending Regulation (EU) 2023/915, maximum levels for inorganic arsenic are 0.15 mg/kg for non-parboiled milled rice, 0.25 mg/kg for parboiled and husked rice, 0.25 for rice flour, 0.30 for rice wafers, cakes and flakes, 0.10 mg/kg for rice destined for infant and young-child food, and 0.030 for rice-based drinks. Cadmium is separately limited at 0.15 mg/kg on a row including rice.

The parboiled allowance being higher is not leniency. Inorganic arsenic concentrates in the bran; milling strips the bran and takes much of the arsenic with it, while husked rice keeps it and parboiling drives some inward before milling. The limit is higher because the material carries more, not because the risk is lower. Since parboiled is the backbone of Indian shipments to West Africa, this applies to the largest part of the trade.

Border controls

Rice from India is listed under CN 1006 in Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2019/1793 for pesticide residues at a 10 percent control rate, verified against the India entries as amended by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1206, in force from 30 June 2026. Annex I means a higher frequency of identity and physical checks and nothing more — no origin-country certificate, no pre-shipment official analysis, no four-month certificate validity. Those belong to Annex II, which covers turmeric, cumin, peanuts, sesame and a long list of spices. Rice is not in it, and remains the only cereal listed for India in either annex. A forwarder telling you Indian rice needs the full Annex II pack is applying the spice rules to a cereal.

Indian export policy

India changed its rice export rules five times in roughly thirty months between September 2022 and March 2025, ending with the broken-rice ban lifted on 7 March 2025 when ITC HS 10064000 moved from Prohibited to Free with immediate effect. Everything is open now. The honest sentence is that Indian export policy is the single largest risk in buying Indian rice and neither of us controls it — so price volatility in, keep a second origin qualified, and write force majeure and act-of-government clauses that address export prohibition explicitly rather than leaving it to general wording.

If you want it organic

Certified organic adds three documentation layers: NPOP certification overseen by APEDA with the TraceNet transaction certificate covering your lot rather than the site certificate, verified with the certifying body directly rather than accepted as a scanned PDF; a Certificate of Inspection in TRACES NT under Regulation (EU) 2018/848 for the EU, in addition to the Annex I check rate rather than instead of it; and a NOP Import Certificate for the United States, mandatory for every organic consignment since 19 March 2024 under the Strengthening Organic Enforcement rule, existing before departure and matching the consignment.

Organic is not an analytical zero — certification governs what may be applied, not what may be detected. And organic does nothing for arsenic, which comes from soil and irrigation water taken up by the plant rather than from an applied input. Organic certification is also not a GI and not a varietal guarantee; the three are separate claims and each needs its own evidence.

Frequently asked questions

Are non-basmati trade names like Sona Masoori and IR64 actual varieties?

Mostly they are market classes, and you should assume so unless your contract says otherwise. Three examples make the point. Sona Masoori: the Agricultural Research Station at Bapatla records BPT 3291, the variety actually called Sona Mahsuri, released 1982, grown on about 80,000 acres — while BPT 5204 Samba Mahsuri, released 1986, averages 2.79 million hectares nationally. Eighty thousand acres cannot supply a global trade, so most Sona Masoori is BPT 5204 or similar. IR64: bred at IRRI and released in 1985, its area has declined over the past decade and it has been succeeded by a new generation of varieties that are mostly its own progeny, according to the 2018 peer-reviewed review in the journal Rice. Ponni: developed at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in 1986 from Taichung 65 crossed with Myang Ebos 6080/2, but used commercially far more widely than that one cross. None of these names carries Geographical Indication protection, so nothing restricts their use. For most buyers this is not a defect, because you are buying a grain and cooking profile and the specification describes it. It matters only if you assumed otherwise, or if your pack or contract makes a varietal claim you would have to defend.

Which Indian rice varieties are actually the biggest?

Not the ones importers ask for by name, which is worth knowing when you are told something is scarce. On ANGRAU figures, the largest Indian rice variety by national average area is MTU 1010, called Cottondora Sannalu, at about 3.24 million hectares, contributing around Rs 13,705 crore a year to the rice economy. Second is BPT 5204 Samba Mahsuri at about 2.79 million hectares and roughly Rs 8,587 crore. MTU 7029, called Swarna, covered about 3.5 lakh hectares in Andhra Pradesh in 2021-22 and is also grown in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka and Uttarakhand, contributing about 3.32 percent of the country’s rice revenue; its own successor MTU 1318 has already replaced more than 2 lakh hectares of its Andhra Pradesh area. India’s total rice production is projected at 152 million tonnes for 2025/26. So the varietal base is deep, it is actively turning over, and the commercial names used in export are a thin and partly historical layer on top of it.

Can I buy GI-tagged Indian rice such as Kalanamak or Palakkadan Matta in container quantities?

Usually not, and any supplier who says yes without hesitating deserves a second question. India has 27 rice varieties on the official Geographical Indications register, including Navara, Palakkadan Matta, Pokkali, Wayanad Jeerakasala, Wayanad Gandhakasala and Kaipad from Kerala; Kalanamak and Adamchini Chawal from Uttar Pradesh; Tulaipanji, Gobindabhog, Kalonunia and Radhunipagal from West Bengal; Ajara Ghansal, Ambemohar and Bhandara Chinoor from Maharashtra; Joha, Boka Chaul and Chokuwa from Assam; Katarni and Marcha from Bihar; Mushqbudji from Jammu and Kashmir; Koraput Kalajeera from Odisha; Thooyamalli and Ramanadu Chithiraikar from Tamil Nadu; Goa Korgut; Uttarakhand Lal Chawal; Andaman Karen Musley; and Arunachal Pradesh Khaw Tai. These are small, traditional, often low-yielding rices grown in defined districts. Wada Kolam, GI-tagged in 2021, is explicitly described as a low-yielding crop selling at around Rs 60 to 70 a kilogram domestically. Realistic quantities are pallets and part-containers at premium prices with a documented chain of custody, not full containers at commodity prices. Tell us the quantity you actually need before anyone quotes you.

Where is the non-basmati trade moving?

Away from Asia and towards West Africa, and the published top-importer lists have not caught up. APEDA reports India exported 15.01 million MT of non-basmati rice worth Rs 51,892.32 crore, about US$5.82 billion, in 2025-26, with Benin at 11.5 percent, Bangladesh 9.3 percent, Guinea 6.6 percent, Togo 6.6 percent and Côte d’Ivoire 5.4 percent. Four of the five are West African. Meanwhile three major Asian buyers have contracted: Indonesia imported no rice in 2025 and confirmed no consumption imports for 2026; the Philippines suspended imports from 1 September 2025 to year end, falling about 30 percent for the year before reopening in January 2026 with 3.6 to 3.8 million MT planned; and Bangladesh’s rice imports fell 22.5 percent in FY2025-26 to about US$529 million on domestic output of roughly 42.7 million tonnes. Over the same period Niger rose 52.9 percent, Benin 21.8 percent, Togo 28.4 percent, Guinea-Bissau 27.4 percent, Liberia 25.5 percent and Côte d’Ivoire 10.2 percent. Global rice trade in 2026 is projected at a record 62.8 million tonnes.

What pack sizes and private label options do you offer?

RNG Agro Exports provides private labelling from 1 kg pack size to 50 kg pack size, and we do bulk shipments as well. Across the non-basmati range that spans 1 kg to 5 kg consumer packs for supermarket and diaspora grocery retail and e-commerce; 10 kg to 25 kg packs for foodservice and for West African and South Asian household retail, where larger household packs are the norm; 50 kg bags for wholesale, institutional supply and relief and programme tenders; and bulk or containerised shipments for traders, millers and repackers applying their own brand at destination. Private label work covers artwork, language versions, nutrition and ingredient panels, barcodes and country-specific labelling requirements. Tell us the destination market and the channel when you enquire, because the pack format changes the specification: moisture tolerance, barrier film, pallet configuration and shelf-life declaration are not the same for a 1 kg retail bag as for a 50 kg woven sack.

• Mostly they are market classes, and you should assume so unless your contract says otherwise. Three examples make the point. Sona Masoori: the Agricultural Research Station at Bapatla records BPT 3291, the variety actually called Sona Mahsuri, released 1982, grown on about 80,000 acres — while BPT 5204 Samba Mahsuri, released 1986, averages 2.79 million hectares nationally. Eighty thousand acres cannot supply a global trade, so most Sona Masoori is BPT 5204 or similar. IR64: bred at IRRI and released in 1985, its area has declined over the past decade and it has been succeeded by a new generation of varieties that are mostly its own progeny, according to the 2018 peer-reviewed review in the journal Rice. Ponni: developed at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in 1986 from Taichung 65 crossed with Myang Ebos 6080/2, but used commercially far more widely than that one cross. None of these names carries Geographical Indication protection, so nothing restricts their use. For most buyers this is not a defect, because you are buying a grain and cooking profile and the specification describes it. It matters only if you assumed otherwise, or if your pack or contract makes a varietal claim you would have to defend.
• Not the ones importers ask for by name, which is worth knowing when you are told something is scarce. On ANGRAU figures, the largest Indian rice variety by national average area is MTU 1010, called Cottondora Sannalu, at about 3.24 million hectares, contributing around Rs 13,705 crore a year to the rice economy. Second is BPT 5204 Samba Mahsuri at about 2.79 million hectares and roughly Rs 8,587 crore. MTU 7029, called Swarna, covered about 3.5 lakh hectares in Andhra Pradesh in 2021-22 and is also grown in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka and Uttarakhand, contributing about 3.32 percent of the country’s rice revenue; its own successor MTU 1318 has already replaced more than 2 lakh hectares of its Andhra Pradesh area. India’s total rice production is projected at 152 million tonnes for 2025/26. So the varietal base is deep, it is actively turning over, and the commercial names used in export are a thin and partly historical layer on top of it.
• Usually not, and any supplier who says yes without hesitating deserves a second question. India has 27 rice varieties on the official Geographical Indications register, including Navara, Palakkadan Matta, Pokkali, Wayanad Jeerakasala, Wayanad Gandhakasala and Kaipad from Kerala; Kalanamak and Adamchini Chawal from Uttar Pradesh; Tulaipanji, Gobindabhog, Kalonunia and Radhunipagal from West Bengal; Ajara Ghansal, Ambemohar and Bhandara Chinoor from Maharashtra; Joha, Boka Chaul and Chokuwa from Assam; Katarni and Marcha from Bihar; Mushqbudji from Jammu and Kashmir; Koraput Kalajeera from Odisha; Thooyamalli and Ramanadu Chithiraikar from Tamil Nadu; Goa Korgut; Uttarakhand Lal Chawal; Andaman Karen Musley; and Arunachal Pradesh Khaw Tai. These are small, traditional, often low-yielding rices grown in defined districts. Wada Kolam, GI-tagged in 2021, is explicitly described as a low-yielding crop selling at around Rs 60 to 70 a kilogram domestically. Realistic quantities are pallets and part-containers at premium prices with a documented chain of custody, not full containers at commodity prices. Tell us the quantity you actually need before anyone quotes you.
• Away from Asia and towards West Africa, and the published top-importer lists have not caught up. APEDA reports India exported 15.01 million MT of non-basmati rice worth Rs 51,892.32 crore, about US$5.82 billion, in 2025-26, with Benin at 11.5 percent, Bangladesh 9.3 percent, Guinea 6.6 percent, Togo 6.6 percent and Côte d’Ivoire 5.4 percent. Four of the five are West African. Meanwhile three major Asian buyers have contracted: Indonesia imported no rice in 2025 and confirmed no consumption imports for 2026; the Philippines suspended imports from 1 September 2025 to year end, falling about 30 percent for the year before reopening in January 2026 with 3.6 to 3.8 million MT planned; and Bangladesh’s rice imports fell 22.5 percent in FY2025-26 to about US$529 million on domestic output of roughly 42.7 million tonnes. Over the same period Niger rose 52.9 percent, Benin 21.8 percent, Togo 28.4 percent, Guinea-Bissau 27.4 percent, Liberia 25.5 percent and Côte d’Ivoire 10.2 percent. Global rice trade in 2026 is projected at a record 62.8 million tonnes.

Look at the first and fifth rows together, because that is the whole problem in two lines. India’s single largest rice variety by area, MTU 1010 Cottondora Sannalu at about 3.24 million hectares, is a name no importer has ever asked us for. The variety genuinely named Sona Mahsuri, BPT 3291, covers about 80,000 acres — roughly 32,000 hectares — and is one of the most requested names in the export trade. Those two facts cannot both describe a market where names track varieties. They describe a market where names are market classes: descriptions of grain size, shape, translucency, milling behaviour and cooking profile, which several varieties can satisfy.