3. Trade with India
3.1 India is an important trading partner for the UK when it comes to food and agricultural products. While India doesn’t send any beef, eggs, or pork to the UK, it is a leading exporter for other food products. For example, rice is a major import; nearly one-third of all rice brought into the UK comes from India, making it our biggest rice supplier.
3.2 From HMRC UK trade data:
- India is ranked #1 for herbs and spices imports into the UK
- India is also ranked #1 for infant food into the UK, however this is from exporting a large amount of Rusk to the UK. Rusk is a twice baked bread product, or hard bread which is commonly used for teething babies.
- India accounts for 29.6% of all UK rice imports—including husked brown rice, broken rice, and semi-milled rice—highlighting its pivotal role in meeting the UK’s rice demand.
3.3 As part of this close trade relationship, the UK maintains ongoing co-operation and engagement with the Indian authorities, which plays an important role in ensuring the safety of imported foods. The FSA and FSS are hoping to finalise a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), to further enhance the UK-India CETA by an increase of both Parties’ co-operation during food incidents, communication, information sharing and understanding of one another’s SPS regimes. The FSA and FSS are continuing to engage with the Indian authorities when issues such as non-compliances and incidents emerge and look forward to improved cooperation as a result of the FTA and MoU.