Katihar, India – Ravjit Singh, a leather-based garment dealer who lives in Denver, Colorado, has began to really feel the pinch of fifty p.c tariffs imposed by United States President Donald Trump on Indian items in current months.
The 50-year-old, initially from Kolkata in jap India, informed Al Jazeera that rising grocery costs have despatched his family funds haywire, specifically, affecting a favorite household snack – fox nuts, popularly referred to as makhana.
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“The month-to-month funds has shot as much as $900, which was $500 earlier than the pandemic, and tariffs have made issues worse,” he mentioned.
A pack of fox nuts weighing about 25 grammes (0.9 ounces), which used to value $2, has in current months doubled to $4, together with worth will increase of different family staples, like lentils and basmati rice, he added.
Fox nuts are the popped kernels of water lily seeds, and are present in tropical and subtropical areas of South and East Asia, with a substantial presence in India, China, Nepal and Japan. Full of protein, calcium, antioxidants and nutritional vitamins, the nuts have quickly gained a fame as main immunity boosters.
However they haven’t been resistant to the consequences of Trump’s tariffs: The US president first hit Indian items with a 25 p.c levy, then doubled that to 50 p.c on account of Indian imports of Russian oil, which he mentioned had been serving to gasoline Russia’s battle on Ukraine. The tariffs have hit companies throughout a number of sectors in India for whom the US has been a serious export market, together with these coping with shrimp, diamonds and textiles.
Exporters of fox nuts have seen gross sales to the US stoop by as a lot as 40 p.c.
Nonetheless, amid the disaster, some are additionally recognizing a ray of hope – Indian fox nuts are discovering new, various markets and a rising urge for food for the superfood in India.
‘Nascent stage’
In India, fox nuts are grown in low-lying areas, notably within the jap Bihar state, and are a supply of revenue to about 150,000 farmers. The nation dominates 90 p.c of the worldwide manufacturing.
The state produces 120,000 metric tonnes of seeds and 40,000 tonnes of popped fox nuts yearly throughout 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres) of land.
The cultivation is completed in shallow agricultural fields with a depth of about 1.3 to 1.8 metres (4 to six toes). It isn’t costly, as new vegetation simply germinate from older seeds.
The harvesting season begins from mid-July and continues till the tip of November, throughout which labourers sweep your entire physique of water collected on fields for seeds with conventional instruments like horn-shaped break up bamboo and nets, relying on the seeds’ measurement.
The collected seeds are first sun-dried, after which heated in a clay or iron pan to make the outer shells brittle. The seeds are lastly hammered to launch the whiter edible makhana puff, which is once more roasted for a ultimate crunch.
In 2024-25, India exported roughly 800 metric tonnes of fox nuts to international locations like Germany, China, the US and the Center East. However the US – the place 50 p.c of India’s exported fox nuts go – dominates the market, mentioned Satyajit Singh, whose firm, Shakti Sudha Agro Ventures, controls half of India’s whole exports of the well being meals.
The whole trade turnover – together with the home market – is about 3.6 billion rupees ($40m), Singh informed Al Jazeera.
“However the sector has large alternatives, as it’s nonetheless in a nascent stage and restricted to [the] Indian diaspora in [the] worldwide market, and we have to unfold extra consciousness about it each domestically and overseas,” he added.
He’s already seeing demand from new markets, like Spain and South Africa, pushed by the Indian diaspora and consciousness of the well being advantages of fox nuts, he mentioned.
Ketan Bengani, 28, a Kolkata-based fox nut exporter, informed Al Jazeera that the home demand for fox nuts has additionally been doubling annually for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic, when folks turned conscious of the nuts’ well being advantages.
His exports to the US of about 46 metric tonnes have dropped by 40 p.c as a result of tariffs. However he isn’t too anxious, and expects to make that up with the rising demand in India, he mentioned.
The truth is, the excessive demand has attracted a number of budding entrepreneurs.
Amongst them is Md Gulfaraz, 27, a fox nut producer and exporter primarily based in Charkhi village within the Purnea district of Bihar.
Gulfaraz informed Al Jazeera that this firm’s gross sales have jumped from 5.4 million rupees ($60,000) in 2019 to 45 million rupees ($500,00) within the monetary yr ending March 2025, due to burgeoning home demand.
Robust home market
Makhanas, as fox nuts are popularly identified in India, was frequent in Indian kitchens traditionally, however like many conventional meals, misplaced out to the slick advertising and marketing campaigns, branding and flavours of Western and extra fashionable Indian snacks.
The pandemic served as a blessing in disguise, bringing fox nuts again in favour due to their immunity advantages. Now, makhanas line Indian grocery store cabinets, with flavours starting from peri peri to tangy tomato, cheese to onion and cream.
Sujay Verma, 43, a software program engineer in Kolkata, who’s a local of Bihar and grew up consuming fox nuts, informed Al Jazeera that he provides a plate to his two daughters on daily basis at breakfast.
“We had been speeding after the packed meals gadgets that had been costly and making a gap in my pocket. However fox nuts usually are not solely low cost, but in addition good for well being,” he mentioned.
The Indian authorities has additionally seen the enterprise potential of fox nuts. Earlier this yr, it introduced the formation of a makhana board at an preliminary outlay of 1 billion rupees ($11m) to institutionalise the worth chain and supply coaching, technical assist, high quality regulation and export facilitation to companies.
The drive from the Indian authorities comes from the highest: Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned in a rally earlier this yr that he eats fox nuts most days, and that it was time that India took the tremendous meals to the world.
Farmers and labourers are additionally switching to fox nut manufacturing from different crops as a result of greater returns.
Anil Kumar, assistant professor at Bhola Paswan Shastri Agricultural School in Purnia in Bihar, informed Al Jazeera that the labourers who acquire seeds earn about 2,000 rupees ($22) per day for each 50kg (110lbs) collected. That is greater than double the 700 to 900 rupees ($8-$10) paid usually to unskilled labourers in India.
The manufacturing of fox nuts was restricted to five,000 hectares (12,000 acres) of land in 2010, and farmers had been paid 81 rupees ($0.90) per kilogramme, he mentioned. Now, about 40,000 (99,000 acres) hectares of land are getting used to domesticate fox nuts, whereas farmers get 450 rupees ($5) per kilogramme.
“The tariffs gained’t harm us, because the demand is growing globally,” mentioned Satyajit, from Shakti Sudha Agro Ventures.
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