Masoor Lentils Exporter from India to Bangladesh

Masoor (red lentil) shows one of the most striking single-market concentrations of any Indian agri-export outside a few outlier cases like DORB. Bangladesh took USD 91.5 million of India's USD 148.7 million total 2024 masoor exports — roughly 62% of both value and volume. If you're a Bangladesh-based buyer of Indian lentils, you're not a niche customer in a diversified trade; you're the trade. Iraq is the clear second-largest market at a much smaller scale, with Djibouti, the UAE, Malaysia and Sri Lanka rounding out meaningful volumes. This guide covers how to specify whole or split masoor, where export stock actually comes from, what moves the price and where first orders go wrong.

Which masoor specification should go into a Bangladesh contract?

Five parameters, each written as a limit you can test against on arrival:

• Form — whole (husk-on, brown-green) or split (masoor dal, orange-red)
• Moisture — typically 12-14%; write the ceiling, not a target
• Foreign matter — ≤1%
• Admixture / damaged — ≤2-3%, per contract
• Colour consistency — particularly relevant for retail-facing buyers

Trade names are used differently from one market and mill to the next, so write the form in words (whole with husk, whole dehusked, or dehusked and split) and use a trade name only as a reference. The same goes for colour: if your retail packs need a uniform orange-red, say so in the contract rather than in a message.

Why do Bangladesh and Iraq pay almost the same per tonne?

Because both buy bulk staple lentils, at a scale that sets the price for everyone else. Dividing the WITS/UN Comtrade 2024 value by tonnage for India's main masoor markets:

Bangladesh took 62% of the tonnage at a unit value within 1% of the all-market average, and Iraq, the second market, paid USD 874 against Bangladesh's USD 875. Most markets sit in a band of about USD 800-950. The United States, at about USD 1,407 on just 1,638 tonnes, is the outlier, consistent with smaller lots for ethnic retail rather than bulk milling. A unit value blends whole and split masoor under one HS line, so it is not a price. What it does show is that a Bangladeshi importer is buying in the main market, not a niche one, and that an offer far below the band deserves a question about grade before it gets an order.

Scenario: a Dhaka miller buying whole masoor to split locally and a Chattogram packer buying ready-split dal for supermarket packs both appear in the Bangladesh average. The miller should expect to sit below it, because the dal mill in India adds a processing step; the packer should expect to sit above it.

Where does India's export masoor come from?

Madhya Pradesh is India's largest masoor-producing state, with Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal contributing significant volume. Masoor is a rabi crop, so new-crop supply arrives in the spring. But this isn't a simple "India grows more than it needs" story: India is simultaneously a significant lentil importer in its own right, mainly from Canada and Australia, and duty-free import windows for certain pulses have run at various points to manage domestic supply gaps. In practice, export stock moving to Bangladesh can be Indian-grown, imported-and-reprocessed, or a blend depending on the contract and the season. Our position supplying masoor reflects processing and sourcing capability, established trade relationships and specific grade availability, not a straightforward domestic-surplus narrative.

The origin basis matters for paperwork as well as quality. A Bangladeshi importer who wants to claim SAFTA preference needs a SAFTA certificate of origin, and a lot of imported Canadian or Australian lentils that has only been cleaned or split in India may not meet the agreement's origin rules. Ask any Indian supplier directly how they source masoor for export; we'll confirm the origin basis, and which certificate of origin the lot can carry, on your specific enquiry rather than leave it assumed.

How many tonnes fit in a 20ft, and is a 40ft worth it?

A bagged 20ft takes about 24-25 MT and a 40ft about 26-27 MT. Masoor is dense, so the container's weight limit stops loading long before the 40ft's extra space is used: the larger box adds only about 2 MT, roughly 8%, for a noticeably higher freight charge.

At Bangladesh's 2024 unit value of about USD 875 per tonne, a 25 MT 20ft carried roughly USD 21,900 of masoor. Bangladesh's 2024 intake of 104,552 MT works out to about 4,200 such containers, or around 80 a week, which is why both the sea route to Chattogram and the Petrapole-Benapole crossing carry steady pulse traffic. For a buyer, the practical choices are 20ft containers by sea, or truckloads by land where the crossing is running smoothly; there is little case for a 40ft on this lane. Jumbo bags (FIBC) load faster than 50kg bags but do not change the weight limit.

Fumigation before container stuffing is standard on masoor, as a stored pulse, and the certificate of analysis states the moisture, foreign matter and admixture readings your contract tolerances are measured against. BSTI clearance on arrival is the importer's step, and where the consignment needs a plant-quarantine import permit, that is the importer's too; build testing time into a first shipment.

The document that most often holds up payment on this lane is the letter of credit. Most Bangladesh masoor trade runs on LCs opened by Bangladeshi banks under Bangladesh Bank's foreign-exchange rules, and the bank pays only when every document matches the credit. Scenario: the LC describes the goods as "red lentils, whole, HS 0713.40, 50 kg PP bags", but the buyer later switches to split dal in 25kg bags and the change is agreed by email only. The invoice and packing list now differ from the credit, the bank calls a discrepancy, and the documents wait for an amendment or the buyer's waiver while the truck waits at Benapole. Send us the draft LC before it is issued, and amend it in writing whenever the form or packing changes. See our Bangladesh market guide for the full picture on documentation and payment norms.

What actually determines the price you're quoted

We don't quote masoor off a flat benchmark, because the benchmark itself moves for reasons that don't apply to most other pulses. Five things matter most: India's own rabi-season masoor crop size (weather in Madhya Pradesh and the other producing states directly affects domestic supply, and therefore how much is genuinely available for export in a given season), global lentil-growing-region conditions in Canada and Australia (since India's own import flow from those origins feeds back into what's available for re-export, this is a genuinely unusual price driver for an Indian agricultural export), whole vs. split processing cost (dal milling adds a real cost step over whole masoor), packaging format, and prevailing INR/BDT or INR/USD exchange rates plus freight cost on whichever route (sea or land) you're using.

India's own supply position sits behind all of this. Because India's lentil production doesn't always cover domestic demand, masoor availability for export can tighten in years when Indian domestic prices rise and government policy responds by prioritising domestic supply. It isn't a constant risk, but it's a genuine one to build into any long-term Bangladesh masoor programme — diversifying your supplier relationships and keeping some flexibility in order timing gives you room to manage a tighter-supply year without disrupting your own downstream business.

Quotes are issued FOB, CIF or CFR against your specific form, moisture/admixture tolerance, packaging and destination port — never as a flat per-tonne market rate. To get an accurate quote fast, tell us: whole or split, your moisture/admixture tolerance if non-standard, packaging preference, quantity, and whether you need sea or land routing. That's what we need to come back with FOB/CIF pricing and a lead time.

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What goes wrong on a first order, and how to avoid it

The most common rejection reason on masoor shipments is moisture or admixture readings outside contract tolerance at destination — usually not fraud, but a combination of natural batch variation and storage conditions between our certificate-of-analysis testing and your own arrival testing. Agreeing tolerance bands explicitly in the purchase order, rather than a single point figure, reduces disputes considerably. Insect damage is the second common issue, particularly on shipments that sit in transit or storage longer than planned — proper fumigation before container stuffing and pest-controlled warehousing on our end are standard practice, and it's a fair question to ask any supplier how recently their stock was fumigated relative to your shipment date.

Because India is both a major importer and exporter of lentils, buyers should understand what that means for sourcing continuity: in years when Indian domestic masoor prices rise (typically following a weaker rabi crop), export supply can tighten as domestic demand gets prioritised, and the mix of Indian-grown versus imported-and-reprocessed stock in what we supply can shift accordingly. This isn't hidden — we state the origin basis on request — but it's a dynamic worth understanding rather than assuming Indian masoor supply is as stable and weather-independent as, say, a spice grown in a narrower geographic belt.

What first-time Bangladesh buyers most often get wrong: treating whole and split masoor as interchangeable in a quote comparison. They carry different processing costs, different typical use cases (whole for certain traditional preparations, split dal for the broader retail/food-service market) and different price points — specify which you need before requesting a quote, not after.

Scenario: a contract states moisture as "12%". The lot tests at 12% at loading, picks up a little moisture in a humid week at the border, and reads 13% in the importer's laboratory. The lot is still inside the 12-14% band that is normal for masoor, but it fails the contract. Writing "moisture 14% maximum, tested by [named agency] at loading" would have settled the question before the truck left.