India is the world’s leading rice producer, with production reaching 150 million tonnes in 2024-25, and the largest rice exporter, accounting for 29 per cent of global rice exports valued at USD 11.8 billion in 2024. Rice supports millions of smallholder farmers and is a major source of export earnings. The European Union is a strategically important high-value market, particularly for basmati rice, but rice has been excluded from tariff elimination under the India-EU Free Trade Agreement, maintaining duties of around 7.7 per cent and placing India at a price disadvantage against competitors such as Viet Nam, which benefits from preferential FTA access.
The EU has moved well beyond conventional food safety standards towards comprehensive value-chain governance, integrating environmental sustainability, labour due diligence and corporate accountability through the EU Green Deal, farm-to-fork strategy, stricter maximum residue limits, and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. Over 200 rapid alert notifications against Indian rice consignments in the last five years, primarily for banned pesticide residues including tricyclazole and thiamethoxam, reflect persistent compliance gaps and rising reputational risk for India’s rice in the EU market.
Drawing on trade data, RASFF notifications, institutional analysis and firm-level case studies, this paper examines India’s rice export value chain and compliance ecosystem against these evolving requirements. It identifies six environmental risks, including pesticide residues, greenhouse gas emissions and groundwater depletion, and four labour risks, including migrant worker vulnerabilities and child labour, that require urgent policy attention.
Compliance with environmental and labour standards is no longer market-specific but a universal condition for accessing premium global markets. The study identified institutional, traceability and regulatory gaps that India must address, along with implementing farm-level traceability and utilising the India-EU FTA to secure mutual recognition of its audit and certification systems, reducing compliance costs and strengthening long-term export competitiveness.
