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Bharat International Rice Conference

If you import basmati or non-basmati rice then this is the one event that puts a big slice of India's exporters in one building for three days.

If you import basmati or non-basmati rice then this is the one event that puts a big slice of India's exporters in one building for three days.

The Bharat International Rice Conference (BIRC) is run by the Indian Rice Exporters Federation with APEDA, and it's only in its second year. Unusually for an Indian event, the organiser publishes proper hosted-buyer terms, and they're generous - three years of regular rice imports can get your flight and hotel covered, in return for real time on the floor.

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Who Exhibits

IREF organises it and says it has 7,700 or more members. For 2026 the organiser expects 300 or more exhibitors on about 940 stalls (organiser's site), which means millers, exporters and traders side by side.

Long-grain rice close up

Plenty of members are merchant exporters who buy from mills and ship under their own name, and that's simply how much of the rice trade works. What you need is two answers - which mill will process your order, and who answers for grade and residue results if a shipment fails?

Hosted-Buyer Terms

The organiser published these for 2026 (buyer facilitation note, read 25 September 2026). You're eligible if you've imported rice into your country regularly for at least three years, and IREF then offers -

  • Flights: economy return airfare, reimbursed up to a cap against your passport, visa, tickets and boarding pass. Check the current cap in the note before you book.
  • Hotel: up to three nights, room only, at a star hotel near the venue on 22, 23 and 24 October.
  • Ground and meals: airport transfers, hotel-to-venue transport, lunch on 23 and 24 October and a gala dinner on 24 October.
  • The condition: at least six hours at the venue on each of 23 and 24 October, checked by badge scan, or the support can be withdrawn. 25 October is a public day and isn't covered.

Visa

Apply for the e-Business Visa at least two weeks ahead. The organiser has its own invitation letter form, so use it.

Getting There

It's at Bharat Mandapam in central New Delhi, on the Pragati Maidan site. ITPO says the 123-acre complex has metro connectivity and underground parking (ITPO, read September 2026), and since the conference halls aren't always next to the exhibition halls it pays to check the gate before your cab drops you.

What to Expect

It's a conference with an exhibition floor attached, plus a "global rice archive" of about 200 varieties you can compare before you meet exporters. So plan on sessions and side meetings as much as stands. The dates also fall in the run-up to Diwali (8 November 2026), when Indian offices slow right down, which is a good reason to lock your meetings before you fly.

Go in knowing how Indian rice fails at borders. It's almost always the same thing.

Quality control in India covers how to set that sampling up.

Past Editions

Sources

Where SourcingSync Helps

SourcingSync (opens in a new tab) can check rice exporters against their public records, run the mill visits and sample your lot before it ships, if you'd rather not do that from abroad.

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