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Boost Rice Milling Profits: Focus on Recovery, Not Just Capacity, Says IREF
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News18•05-10-2026, 11:45
Boost Rice Milling Profits: Focus on Recovery, Not Just Capacity, Says IREF
- •Improving rice recovery, especially reducing broken grains, can significantly increase millers' earnings; a 1% shift from broken to whole grain could add Rs 60 lakh annually for a mill processing 30,000 tonnes of paddy.
- •The Indian Rice Exporters' Federation (IREF) highlights that retaining more value from every tonne of rice, rather than simply processing more, is key to profitability.
- •The Bharat International Rice Conference (BIRC) 2026 will discuss strategies for improving milling margins, investment returns, and assess where new capacity is genuinely needed versus upgrading existing facilities.
- •The conference will reveal a model rice mill set-up cost for 2026-27, covering various components from land to effluent management, and examine capacity utilization and technology mix across 30,000 operational rice mills.
- •BIRC 2026 will also explore advanced processing methods like controlled drying, automated husking, optical sorting, and in-line quality monitoring to reduce losses and improve consistency.
Key Questions Answered
A one-percentage-point shift from broken to whole grain can potentially add Rs 60 lakh in annual sales for a mill processing 30,000 tonnes of paddy.
The BIRC 2026 is scheduled to be held from October 23-25, with the specific milling session taking place on October 24 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.
A Department of Food and Public Distribution snapshot cited in the release recorded around 30,000 operational rice mills nationally in April 2024.
