“India is a traditional ally… When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Mauritius, some agreements were signed. But so far, there is no agreement on rice supply,” said Takesh Luckho, chairman of State Trading Corporation of Mauritius

By Prabhudatta Mishra

Mauritius, which imports 50,000-60,000 tonnes of rice annually, is keen to have a long-term agreement with India to secure rice supply as it buys through open tender and such an agreement will help Indian exporters to bid there, irrespective of any restriction on shipment.

“India has a traditional ally. We already have a long-term relationship in many things. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Mauritius, some agreements were signed. But so far, there is no agreement on rice supply,” said Takesh Luckho, chairman of State Trading Corporation of Mauritius.

Speaking to businessline, on the sidelines of the global rice conference held in New Delhi on October 30-31, Luckho said that Mauritius government buys about 250 tonnes of Basmati and 8,000 tonnes of non-Basmati rice every quarter through open global tender, which comes to its annual import requirement of about 33,000 tonnes per year on government account.

He said that when India banned non-Basmati rice export, it was filled by Pakistan and now Pakistani exporters are keen to continue their share. However, Mauritius was able to get some rice from India through diplomatic channel by requesting for it.

Indian exporters said that for any country to import an agri commodity, open tender is always the first preference as no one will like to get into any controversy. But when options are limited, some countries do buy rice through government to government negotiation, an exporter pointed out. Private traders also import almost equal number of what Mauritius government buys annually, the exporter added.

According to USDA data, Mauritius had imported 63,000 tonnes of rice in 2023-24 which fell to 55,000 tonnes in 2024-25 and there is a projection of it rising to 60,000 tonnes in 2025-26 marketing year.

India’s agri-trade promotion body APEDA data show that India had exported over 50,000 tonnes of rice to Mauritius in 2023-24, which dropped to nearly 42,000 tonnes including about 31,500 tonnes Basmati in 2024-25. During April-August period of current fiscal it registered 16,247 tonnes of Basmati rice and 664 tonnes of non-Basmati rice.

The STC (Mauritius) Chairman — who was in India with a trade delegation at the invitation from the government to attend the Bharat International Rice Conference, organised by the Indian Rice Exporters Federation (IREF) — said that the supply came from India and Pakistan.

Luckho also said that a long-term agreement may help Mauritius to buy certain fixed quantity through a government-to-government mechanism at lower than market rates since intermediaries jack up prices.

“I spoke to people from different institutions when last time I visited India. They assured that they can do strategic stocking for us if we have a long term agreement with them,” said Luckho, adding they are still negotiating.

Asked why Mauritius needs a long term agreement, he said there has been a subsidy scheme going on since 1968 under which the government sells imported rice to the domestic consumers at a discount to make the food more affordable for the 1.3 million people.

Published Date: November 3, 2025