Industry Odisha Bureau, Sep 30: India’s rice industry is looking beyond grain towards foods, ingredients and industrial by-products. Noodles, bran oil and husk silica feature prominently. The real test is which ideas can turn a profit.
India has long sold rice mainly as a grain. Its rice industry is now asking what else each harvest can yield. The answers range from noodles and edible oil to protein and tyre silica. The Bharat International Rice Conference 2026 meets in New Delhi on October 23–25. A session titled “Beyond Raw Rice: The Next Billion-Dollar Opportunity” anchors the debate. An IREF-EY assessment will then identify the most promising value-added rice products.
Rice moves beyond the grain
The conference frames value creation along three routes. “Better Product” covers premium and speciality rice. “Better Consumer Offering” spans noodles, snacks, and ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat foods. “Better Utilisation” covers bran oil, flour, protein, starch, husk-derived products and bioenergy. Each route adds value at a different stage of processing.
Noodles show the consumer opportunity
Rice noodles offer the clearest consumer example. Grand View Research projects the global market rising from $6.4 billion in 2024. It expects the market to reach $11 billion by 2030. Yet global growth does not automatically translate into Indian revenue.
Bran and protein add another layer
Rice bran, a milling by-product, can become edible oil. A 2024 NITI Aayog report put India’s potential bran-oil output at 1.9 million tonnes. Around 850,000 tonnes of that remains untapped. The global rice-bran-oil market stood at $4.8 billion in 2023. It is forecast to reach $6.3 billion.
Rice protein pushes processing further up the value chain. Grand View Research sees the global market growing from $168.5 million in 2023. It projects $281.4 million by 2030. The conference will also examine rice flour and functional starches. Processing requirements and customer specifications will shape what is commercially viable. More processing, however, does not guarantee better margins.
Waste becomes an industrial input
Rice-husk ash can yield silica used in industry. Grand View Research projects the global rice-husk-ash silica market more than doubling. It could grow from about $640.6 million in 2025 to $1.41 billion by 2033. Rubber and tyres generated about 40% of that market’s revenue in 2025.
Goodyear said in 2025 it was using silica from waste rice-husk ash. The material went into its European truck-racing tyres. The example shows how farm waste can become a manufacturing input. Commercial processing and buyer demand remain essential, though.
Beyond food
Rice-derived beverages, including sake and ethanol, will also feature in discussions. Japan’s sake exports reached 45.9 billion yen in 2025. That marked a rise of about 6%, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association said. The figure shows an established market, not an Indian forecast.
The commercial test
Big markets do not automatically create profitable Indian businesses. The IREF-EY assessment is designed around that gap. It will weigh market demand, achievable margins and processing yields. It will also examine investment requirements, market access and export potential. Crucially, it will estimate what share of global growth Indian firms could realistically capture.
Rajeev Setia, President, Basmati, at the Indian Rice Exporters’ Federation, framed the goal plainly. The aim, he said, is earning more from each tonne, not exporting more tonnes. Millers, exporters and ingredient makers would each need different pathways, he added. He said the conference seeks to separate attractive forecasts from buildable businesses.
From volume to value
India’s rice opportunity may lie less in tonnage than in processing. Grain, bran and husk could each support separate revenue streams. The IREF-EY findings will show which ideas survive that scrutiny. Until then, the next billion-dollar opportunity remains a question, not an answer.
