Basmati producers eye brown rice market

New brown rice brands are in the pipeline and rice manufacturers are making renewed efforts to market them to health-conscious people.

Basmati rice producers eye the minuscule brown rice market, which is beginning to pick up in India and abroad, even as they predict the country's market share in exports to grow from 55 per cent to 60 per cent this year.

Brown rice has traditionally been one of the lowest income generators for rice manufacturers who estimate that its share in domestic production is hardly 3-4 per cent of the total rice production of around 86 million tonne (mt) in the country.

"While the country's total non-basmati exports in 2004-05 was 3.64 mt, brown rice was hardly 3 per cent of that. But this year, growth is expected to be higher than 5 per cent," said Kaizar Colombowala, head of R&D, LT Overseas, which manufactures the Daawat brand of basmati rice.

LT Overseas, which has announced its entry into the capital market, is planning to come out with a ready-to-cook brown rice product in the first quarter next year. Another leading basmati manufacturer is also planning to do the same by the third quarter of 2007.

In the domestic market, brown rice, earlier preferred by only diabetic patients, is now being accepted by a growing number of health-conscious people.

"The demand for brown rice has suddenly surged in metros and the large cities. Although the volume of sales for brown rice is hardly comparable with basmati or other non-basmati variants, brown rice has potential to become a fast-selling product in the premium segment," said Sumil Vohra, export manager, R S Rice Mills, maker of the Double Diamond brand of rice.

The branded basmati rice market has widened from 22 per cent to 35 per cent in the last three years, a figure that is prompting rice manufacturers to introduce new brands in the market.

Export markets also prefer branded rice, and rice companies are making efforts to tap the demand by packaging brown rice as the healthiest product in the rice stable.

"Among export markets, Saudi Arabia is the largest importer of Indian basmati rice with 0.68 mt a year, followed by Kuwait with 0.09 mt, the UAE with mt, the UK with 0.09 mt, the US with 0.02 mt and others with around 0.18 mt," said Ashwani Arora, director, LT Overseas.

"With the West Asian markets showing the highest demand, we would be exporting our new brands of ready-to-cook brown rice and coloured rice, which will shave off preparation time of at least 30 minutes," he added.