It has been over forty years that the company, Tilda, brought its irresistible Basmati Rice to the western world and has become an international food trademark that is in over fifty countries (Harper). Tilda provides other variations of rice for their consumers, but their specialty is Basmati. The company started its business selling Basmati to the Asian community that migrated from the UK, but with the popularity of Indian food on the rise, it didn't take long for them to secure distribution in major supermarkets. As with any company the commodity chain of Basmati Rice started within Tilda. The chain all begins in the northern Indian state of Haryana. Tilda has a small scale farm located in Haryana. From June to November, the rural farmers of Haryana that are contracted with Tilda begin cultivating the Basmati. The work first starts with the seed's sowing and preparation. Shortly after a few weeks, the saplings of the Basmati are handpicked by the farmer's and then transported to the main paddy field. Once harvesting is completed, the paddy crop is then taken to the "Mandi", or a local agricultural market that auctions off goods (Sharma). Tilda then proceeds to purchase the rice from the auction to use for their own products. According to Tilda, this ensures that farmers are not obliged to accept the final price of the bid and can put their rice up for auction again, thus resulting in the farmers receiving a good return on their crop. Following the Mandi, the crop must be dried and then taken to Tilda's mill which will then gently rub away the outer bran layers of each individual grain. The grains are then directly sent from the mill to Tilda's packaging facilities located in India. It is here where the final packaged Basmati products are then loaded onto boats which will then sail to the U.S. and other countries as well. Upon the product's arrival, they are distributed to major retailers all across the U.
