In a landmark decision for bilateral trade, New Zealand’s Parliament passed legislation approving its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India by a 93-29 vote, granting duty-free access for 57% of Kiwi exports initially and expanding up to 95% over time. The agreement is expected to open New Zealand products to 1.4 billion Indian consumers, save the kiwifruit industry NZ$125 million in tariffs over five years, and support the target set by Prime Ministers Christopher Luxon and Narendra Modi to double two-way trade by 2030. Simultaneously, India’s domestic agricultural deficit has pushed soybean imports to an all-time high, projected to hit 1 million tonnes for the 2025–26 oil year due to lower domestic crop acreage and erratic rainfall. Most of these non-GMO soybean imports are sourced from Sub-Saharan African countries such as Niger, Togo, and Nigeria. Meanwhile, trade tensions with China escalated as Beijing revoked the registrations of three additional Indian rice exporters over alleged Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) contamination, bringing the total banned Indian exporters to ten. Indian trade bodies and FSSAI refuted these claims, pointing out that re-exported rejected cargoes tested clean and alleging that China is using non-tariff barriers to protect its aging domestic rice reserves and favour competitors like Pakistan.