The global demand for two of India’s signature agricultural exports — psyllium husk and Basmati rice — has never been higher. But 2026 has also brought real supply-side and geopolitical pressures that every international buyer sourcing from India should understand. Here’s an honest, current look at where both markets stand.
Psyllium: Strong Demand, Tighter Supply
India remains the undisputed center of the global psyllium trade, accounting for roughly 85-95% of world production and export. That dominance isn’t going anywhere — the global psyllium husk powder market alone is projected to grow from around USD 206 million in 2026 to over USD 300 million by 2033, driven by rising demand for natural, plant-based dietary fiber across the supplement, functional food, and pharmaceutical industries. North America continues to lead consumption, with the US importing an estimated 23,000-25,000 tonnes of Indian psyllium annually.
But 2025 was a difficult growing year. Unfavorable weather and a smaller cultivated acreage caused psyllium production to fall by an estimated 20-30% compared to prior years, driven largely by heavy rainfall and hail damage during the harvest season. That production shortfall has worked its way through the supply chain into 2026: after prices eased through the second half of 2025 on the back of carry-over stock, tightening upstream supply and strong export restocking pushed Indian psyllium husk prices upward again in the first quarter of 2026, with buyers in the US and Germany placing forward orders covering a significant share of available Indian output.
What this means practically for buyers:
Lead times matter more than usual. With processors staging releases and prioritizing higher-purity material to meet EU and US food-safety requirements, availability windows are tighter than in a typical year.
Organic-grade material is in particularly short supply across the industry right now — a trend we’ve seen directly in recent buyer conversations. Conventional grade remains reliably available, but organic-certified stock is constrained industry-wide.
Basmati Rice: Steady Fundamentals, Geopolitical Watch Points
Basmati rice tells a different but equally important story. On the supply side, 2026 has been a strong year — a record Kharif harvest has kept Indian port prices among the most competitive in Asia, and India’s overall rice exports are expected to remain above 21.5 million tonnes for the year, reinforcing India’s position as the world’s largest rice exporter by a wide margin.
The bigger story for Basmati specifically has been geopolitical. The Middle East — which historically accounts for 70-72% of India’s Basmati export volume, with Iran alone contributing close to 14% — saw renewed regional tensions in early 2026 that raised real concerns around shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical transit route for rice bound for the Gulf. In response, the Indian Rice Exporters Federation issued a formal advisory in March 2026 recommending that exporters avoid new CIF commitments to affected destinations until the situation stabilized, given the risk of rising freight costs, insurance premiums, and payment delays.
The encouraging news is that industry analysts expect overall Basmati export volumes to hold steady or even grow modestly through the 2025-26 and 2026-27 fiscal years, as higher demand from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE, and Yemen offsets any softness tied to Iran specifically. Separately, a Geographical Indication (GI) labeling dispute involving Madhya Pradesh’s Basmati status surfaced in mid-2026, adding some legal uncertainty to the premium segment — worth watching, though it hasn’t yet disrupted actual trade flows.
What this means practically for buyers:
Contract terms matter more than ever. Given the freight and insurance volatility tied to Gulf shipping routes, buyers and exporters are increasingly building flexibility and risk-allocation clauses into new contracts rather than relying on standard boilerplate terms.
This is a good window to lock in near-term contracts. With supply ample and FOB pricing stable, industry commentary broadly favors buyers securing coverage through staggered purchases now rather than waiting.
Origin documentation and GI compliance are worth double-checking given the current legal noise around Basmati labeling, particularly for buyers in the EU.
