Sona Masoori Rice

South Indian medium grain — light, low starch, aged

Sona Masoori is the outlier in this family: a medium grain of 5.0–5.2 mm where everything else on the list is long grain. It is milled in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, and it is bought for a cooked character rather than for appearance — lightweight, lower in starch than the long grains, cooking soft and fluffy without the separate-grain firmness that a Sella delivers. It contracts at 5% broken or better, moisture ≤ 14%, chalky grains ≤ 5%, damaged and discoloured ≤ 2%, purity ≥ 95%, and it is sold raw (white), steam and as a sortexed premium grade. Ageing of 6–12 months matters here as it does with basmati, though for a different reason: aged Sona Masoori absorbs water more predictably and does not turn pasty, which is precisely what its end uses demand.

Buy it where the customer is cooking South Indian food and knows what they want: diaspora retail in the United States, Canada, the Gulf, Singapore and Malaysia, temple and community kitchens, and food-service serving South Indian menus. It is the daily rice for that cuisine, and it is also the base for idli and dosa batter where raw Sona Masoori is fermented with urad dal — a use no long grain substitutes into. Because that demand is culturally specific rather than price-driven, the buyers are typically packers and distributors serving a defined community, and they will reject a substitution instantly. Which is the main thing to get right: do not offer this against a generic long-grain enquiry and do not accept IR64 against a Sona Masoori order — they are different grains for different food. Supply is arranged in 5 kg, 10 kg, 25 kg and 50 kg bags, container-load, with SGS grading, fumigation and phytosanitary certification, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms.