Increasing Exports of Organic Basmati Rice To Be Brainstormed

Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF) is a registered society founded by Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.  BEDF has set up state of the art laboratory with facilities for DNA fingerprinting for variety identification of Basmati Rice and testing of pesticide residues, aflatoxins and heavy metals. The laboratory and Demonstration &Training Farm has been set up at the Campus of SVP University of Agriculture and Technology, Modipuram. The society is seeking accreditation and inspection body in accordance with ISO: IEC: 17020.

The activities of the foundation are focused on strengthening the supply chain for export of Basmati Rice.   The 8^th Annual General Meeting of the BEDF was held on 24^th November 2020 and was Chaired by Dr. M. Angamuthu, Chairman, APEDA. During the AGM, it was also decided to organize a Workshop with stakeholders  for increasing the share of Organic Basmati Rice. It was also decided to encourage the exporters for value addition and product and product diversification.

Basmati rice is the largest agro product for export from India.  During 2019-20 India exported 4.45 million MT of Basmati Rice with value of US  4331 Million. Over last 10 years, Basmati Rice Exports have more than doubled.  During 2009-10 the export of Basmati Rice was of the order of 2.17 Million MT. The major markets  are Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, EU and USA. Basmati Rice is a registered Geographical Indication (GI).