China may open doors to Indian non-basmati rice

NEW DELHI: Indian non-Basmati rice may soon make its way to China with Beijing clearing the grain of any risk of introduction of alien pests.

The decision comes weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China.

New Delhi had a couple of months back pitched for market access for a variety of its goods to China in a move to bridge the widening trade deficit.


China has agreed to send a team to India next month to inspect mills that produce non-Basmati rice.

“The pest risk analysis to weed out chances of any foreign pests has been done. We’ve invited them to examine our rice establishments and the inspection team from China will come next month,” said an official in the know of the details.

Based on the inspection, certain mills would be authorised to export non-basmati rice to China.