Punjab Millers Upset Over New Fortified Rice Guidelines

10-Dec-2025 08:48 PM

Chandigarh. New guidelines issued by the Central Government regarding the production and supply of fortified rice kernel (FRK) rice have sparked a new conflict between Punjab's rice millers and the Food Corporation of India (FCI).

The Central Government had stated that 15.6 million tons of paddy had been procured in Punjab this year, and its milling would produce 10.4 million tons of rice.

Of this, at least 2.5 million tons would be stockpiled as upgraded rice, with a broken kernel content of only 10 percent. The remaining 8 million tons would be accepted as FRK mixed rice for the central pool.

Due to delays in the supply of FRK rice, paddy milling in Punjab has been stalled, leaving rice piled up on the premises of rice millers.

This paddy was procured from farmers at the minimum support price by the Food Corporation of India and its affiliated state agencies and allocated to rice millers for custom milling.

Rice mill owners stopped milling this paddy in protest against other government guidelines. The Punjab government has sent a letter to the Centre requesting acceptance of 25 lakh tonnes of non-FRK custom milled rice (CMR), but the Central government has not taken any positive action on this yet.

On November 28, 2025, the Director of Food and Civil Supplies of Punjab sent a letter to the Chairman of the Food Corporation to this effect, but no response has been received yet. Due to this, the rice millers of Punjab are stuck in confusion.