Once a top recipient of US grain, India is now among largest rice exporters to Washington

It's a story of stunning role reversal. A remarkable one, for India. There was a time, decades ago, when India was a net importer of food grains. And the US sent large quantities of wheat to New Delhi. Decades later, Washington is now complaining that India is dumping its rice in the United States of America. 

Whether or not India is dumping its rice is a matter of interpretation and can be disputed, but it is indeed a fact that India has become a net exporter of grains, including rice.

In 1960, India depended heavily on America's PL (Public Law) 480 or the Food for Peace programme, under which Washington shipped millions of tonnes of wheat to New Delhi. At its peak, India received over 10 million tonnes annually to meet the requirement. This came when India was facing bouts of severe food shortages and its farm sector had yet to take off.

The BBC reported that India was one of the largest recipients of this food aid, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s, when it faced severe food shortages.

While Washington projected it as humanitarian aid, Lyndon B Johnson, then US Vice President, used PL–480 agreements as leverage in securing support for US foreign policy. 

Johnson even placed "critical famine aid to India on a limited basis, until he received assurance that the Indian Government would implement agricultural reforms and temper criticism of US policy regarding Vietnam".

Cut to 2025, US President Donald Trump has accused India of dumping rice in the US. In the last few decades, India has turned the tables when it comes to foodgrain exports.

The Indian Express reported that India is the world's largest producer as well as exporter of rice. India's total rice exports in 2024-25 were at 22.5 mt, according to the US Department of Agriculture. For the 2025-26 marketing year (October-September), the agency has projected its exports at 25 mt.

India supplies 40 per cent of global rice exports and ships to 172 countries. While Gulf countries remain key markets for basmati, African nations have emerged as fast-growing buyers. Benin, a country in West Africa, for instance, imported over 60,000 tonnes of basmati last year.

Russia has also begun purchasing basmati, moving beyond its traditional focus on non-basmati rices. Even major rice-producing countries like Brazil and Thailand are importing Indian basmati. Also, India has overtaken China to become the world's largest rice producer, and domestic output is likely to grow by 4-5 per cent next year.

It is to be noted that the US has been a major grain-surplus country for most of the 20th and into the 21st century, the role has reversed only for India.

'No dumping, tariff not a major concern'

While Trump is mulling additional tariffs on rice, the Indian rice exporters have downplayed the possible impact. They say tariff is "not a major concern" as the demand remains steady and the export volumes to the US are too small to significantly impact the sector. 

Exports of basmati rice to the US account for less than 3 per cent of the country's six million tonne annual shipments, India Rice Exporter Federation President Prem Garg told news agency PTI. The US share in India's total rice exports -- around 21 million tonne -- is less than one per cent.

"The US market is not large in our overall export basket, and other new markets are also growing," he said. Garg reiterated that charges by US officials of India "dumping" rice are "completely wrong", stating that the US imports only about 2.7 lakh tonne of Indian rice annually, a small volume compared to India's global footprint.

'Election messaging to US farmers'

Trump's threat to impose new tariffs on Indian rice looks driven more by domestic politics than by trade logic, trade think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI said on Wednesday. India exported $392 million worth of rice to the US in FY2025, just 3% of its global rice exports, and already faces tariffs of about 53% in the US market, the think tank points out, adding that 86% of these shipments are premium basmati. 

The new duties would scarcely dent Indian exporters, "who have strong markets elsewhere, but would make rice costlier for American households." GTRI states that India should read this as election-season messaging to US farmers - not a serious policy shift - "and avoid offering concessions to a threat that hurts US consumers more than Indian producers."

What happened at White House

Trump, during a roundtable in the White House on Monday with representatives of the farming and agriculture sector as well as key Cabinet members, announced $12 billion in federal aid for American farmers. Meryl Kennedy, who runs her family's agribusiness Kennedy Rice Mill in Louisiana, told Trump that rice producers in the southern part of the country were "really struggling" and that other nations were "dumping" rice into the US.

When asked by Trump which countries are dumping rice into America, Kennedy, sitting next to the President, replied, "India, and Thailand; even China into Puerto Rico." 

Trump then turned to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who was also present in the White House, and said, "India, tell me about India. Why is India allowed to do that? They have to pay tariffs. Do they have an exemption on rice?" "No sir, we're still working on their trade deal," Bessent replied. Trump then said, "But they shouldn't be dumping. I heard that from others. They can't do that."

Kennedy then told Trump there's a WTO case against India. Trump asked Kennedy to give him the names of the countries dumping rice into the US and instructed Bessent to note down the names. "India. Who else?" Trump said. "India, Thailand, China into Puerto Rico, not into the continental US, but into Puerto Rico. Those are the main culprits," Kennedy said.