Katihar, India – Ravjit Singh, a leather garment trader who lives in Denver, Colorado, has started to feel the pinch of 50 percent tariffs imposed by United States President Donald Trump on Indian goods in recent months.
The 50-year-old, originally from Kolkata in eastern India, told Al Jazeera that rising grocery prices have sent his household budget haywire, in particular, affecting a favourite family snack – fox nuts, popularly known as makhana.
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“The monthly budget has shot up to $900, which was $500 before the pandemic, and tariffs have made things worse,” he said.
A pack of fox nuts weighing about 25 grammes (0.9 ounces), which used to cost $2, has in recent months doubled to $4, along with price increases of other household staples, like lentils and basmati rice, he added.
Fox nuts are the popped kernels of water lily seeds, and are found in tropical and subtropical regions of South and East Asia, with a considerable presence in India, China, Nepal and Japan. Packed with protein, calcium, antioxidants and vitamins, the nuts have rapidly gained a reputation as major immunity boosters.
But they haven’t been immune to the effects of Trump’s tariffs: The US president first hit Indian goods with a 25 percent levy, then doubled that to 50 percent on account of Indian imports of Russian oil, which he said were helping fuel Russia’s war on Ukraine. The tariffs have hit businesses across several sectors in India for whom the US has been a major export market, including those dealing with shrimp, diamonds and textiles.
Exporters of fox nuts have seen sales to the US slump by as much as 40 percent.
Still, amid the crisis, some are also spotting a ray of hope – Indian fox nuts are finding new, alternative markets and a growing appetite for the superfood in India.
‘Nascent stage’
In India, fox nuts are grown in low-lying areas, particularly in the eastern Bihar state, and are a source of income to about 150,000 farmers. The country dominates 90 percent of the global production.
The state produces 120,000 metric tonnes of seeds and 40,000 tonnes of popped fox nuts annually across 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres) of land.
The cultivation is done in shallow agricultural fields with a depth of about 1.3 to 1.8 metres (4 to 6 feet). It is not expensive, as new plants easily germinate from older seeds.
The harvesting season starts from mid-July and continues until the end of November, during which labourers sweep the entire body of water collected on fields for seeds with traditional tools like horn-shaped split bamboo and nets, depending on the seeds’ size.
The collected seeds are first sun-dried, and then heated in a clay or iron pan to make the outer shells brittle. The seeds are finally hammered to release the whiter edible makhana puff, which is again roasted for a final crunch.
In 2024-25, India exported approximately 800 metric tonnes of fox nuts to countries like Germany, China, the US and the Middle East. But the US – where 50 percent of India’s exported fox nuts go – dominates the market, said Satyajit Singh, whose company, Shakti Sudha Agro Ventures, controls half of India’s total exports of the health food.
The total industry turnover – including the domestic market – is about 3.6 billion rupees ($40m), Singh told Al Jazeera.
“But the sector has huge opportunities, as it is still in a nascent stage and limited to (the) Indian diaspora in (the) international market, and we need to spread more awareness about it both domestically and abroad,” he added.
He is already seeing demand from new markets, like Spain and South Africa, driven by the Indian diaspora and awareness of the health benefits of fox nuts, he said.
Ketan Bengani, 28, a Kolkata-based fox nut exporter, told Al Jazeera that the domestic demand for fox nuts has also been doubling each year since the COVID-19 pandemic, when people became aware of the nuts’ health benefits.
His exports to the US of about 46 metric tonnes have dropped by 40 percent due to the tariffs. But he is not too worried, and expects to make that up with the rising demand in India, he said.
In fact, the high demand has attracted several budding entrepreneurs.
Among them is Md Gulfaraz, 27, a fox nut producer and exporter based in Charkhi village in the Purnea district of Bihar.
Gulfaraz told Al Jazeera that this company’s sales have jumped from 5.4 million rupees ($60,000) in 2019 to 45 million rupees ($500,00) in the financial year ending March 2025, thanks to burgeoning domestic demand.
Strong domestic market
Makhanas, as fox nuts are popularly known in India, used to be common in Indian kitchens historically, but like many traditional foods, lost out to the slick marketing campaigns, branding and flavours of Western and more modern Indian snacks.
The pandemic served as a blessing in disguise, bringing fox nuts back in favour because of their immunity benefits. Now, makhanas line Indian supermarket shelves, with flavours ranging from peri peri to tangy tomato, cheese to onion and cream.
Sujay Verma, 43, a software engineer in Kolkata, who is a native of Bihar and grew up eating fox nuts, told Al Jazeera that he gives a plate to his two daughters every day at breakfast.
“We were rushing after the packed food items that were expensive and creating a hole in my pocket. But fox nuts are not only cheap, but also good for health,” he said.
The Indian government has also seen the business potential of fox nuts. Earlier this year, it announced the formation of a makhana board at an initial outlay of one billion rupees ($11m) to institutionalise the value chain and provide training, technical support, quality regulation and export facilitation to businesses.
The drive from the Indian government comes from the top: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a rally earlier this year that he eats fox nuts most days, and that it was time that India took the super food to the world.
Farmers and labourers are also switching to fox nut production from other crops due to higher returns.
Anil Kumar, assistant professor at Bhola Paswan Shastri Agricultural College in Purnia in Bihar, told Al Jazeera that the labourers who collect seeds earn about 2,000 rupees ($22) per day for every 50kg (110lbs) collected. This is more than double the 700 to 900 rupees ($8-$10) paid normally to unskilled labourers in India.
The production of fox nuts was limited to 5,000 hectares (12,000 acres) of land in 2010, and farmers were paid 81 rupees ($0.90) per kilogramme, he said. Now, about 40,000 (99,000 acres) hectares of land are being used to cultivate fox nuts, while farmers get 450 rupees ($5) per kilogramme.
“The tariffs won’t hurt us, as the demand is increasing globally,” said Satyajit, from Shakti Sudha Agro Ventures.
