APEDA has actually released a brand-new SOP for rice exports following China’s rejection of non-basmati consignments over declared GMO(genetically customized organisms) contamination. It has actually started to impose the brand-new treatments from Tuesday (June 9). Eager to safeguard its footprint in a rewarding neighbouring market that reveals strong need for Indian damaged rice, the trade body is acting to cushion the sector versus falling export volumes in parts of Africa.
In a notification on June 8, APEDA basic supervisor Vinita Sudhanshu stated that in order to guarantee compliance with the hygienic and phytosanitary requirements for the export of rice to China, a treatment has actually been established for the assistance of exporters and other stakeholders.
“The treatment will enter result for all RCAC applications gotten by APEDA from June 9 onwards and will apply to all rice consignments meant for export to China,” she stated asking exporters to guarantee compliance with the proposed requirements.
Africa saturated
Inviting the issuance of the standard procedure (SOP), The Rice Exporters Association President B V Krishna Rao stated China is a crucial market as Africa is filled to satisfy its issues of GMO. Speaking to businesslineRao stated that the export agreements currently concluded and deliveries currently under execution ought to be enabled to continue up until July 31 as a transitional plan under the brand-new system. He recommended the SOP might be executed from August 1 to supply adequate time to exporters.
At the conference of the Non-Basmati Rice Development Fund (NBDF) in May recently, an area of exporters stated that some African nations such as Senegal, Burkina Faso, Benin and Sudan have actually taken limiting procedures to decrease rice imports, which has actually negatively affected Indian non-Basmati rice, sources stated.
APEDA Charman Abhishek Dev, while resolving the NBDF committee, asked rice exporters to represent at African trade occasions independent of APEDA’s involvement, the sources stated. Dev likewise worried on the requirement to diversify rice exports towards high-potential markets such as the Philippines, Indonesia, and China, where India’s share is yet to reach its real capacity. Exporters require to incentivise farmers to grow the ranges required in these locations, he stated.
Unrelenting China
When some exporters raised the problem of rejection of consignments by China, Dev informed them that conference with General Administration of Customs of individuals’s Republic of China (GACC) has actually been held and because conference APEDA clarified that India is a non-GMO nation for rice. India likewise showed GACC verification by ICAR and GEAC that there is no accessibility of GMO rice seeds, nor any industrial growing of GM rice in India was ever enabled.
Market sources stated that because China did not budge from its stand, India had actually provided the SOP to get a screening done for GMO so that a consistent treatment is followed by all exporters.
According to the SOP, the export of rice to China will be permitted just from the rice mills/processing systems signed up with Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage (DPPQS), in accordance with the 2016 Order. The DPPQS under the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare signs up the rice mills/processing systems for export to China. Indian exporters are likewise mandated to either register with GACC or need to source rice just from GACC-registered centers.
APEDA has actually likewise stated that exporters will continue to acquire Phytosanitary Certificate released by DPPQS prior to export to China. “Export consignments of rice will be enabled to be delivered to China just after screening by labs acknowledged by APEDA having scope of accreditation for GMO analysis in rice,” it stated.
Rising exports
Exporters will need to use to acknowledged labs for drawing and screening of samples for GMO analysis under a particular format. After tasting, the lot will not be shifted/relocated by the processing system or exporter to another place, it stated.
Just after conformity of the sample, the exporter will get the Registration-cum-Allocation-Certificate (RCAC) by sending the Certificate of Analysis to APEDA.
India had actually exported 315,193 tonnes worth $103.90 million (Rs 922.15 crore) of non-basmati rice to China in 2025-26, versus 180,805 tonnes worth $79.43 million (Rs 677.87 crore) in 2024-25. As China had limitations on Indian rice through non-tariff barriers, the export was less till 2019-20– just 567 tonnes in 2019-20, however it rose to 331,571 tonnes in 2020-21 after it eliminated those curbs.
Released on June 12, 2026
