The day begins before sunrise. Harvesters wade into chest-deep pond water, feeling along the mud for spiky guri seeds with practiced hands.
Back on land, the seeds are washed, sun-dried for days, then sorted by size. The popping is pure percussion craft: seeds roasted in a hot pan, then struck with a wooden mallet at the exact moment the kernel puffs.
One skilled worker pops thousands of seeds a day. Machines are catching up — but the best grades are still made by hand.
In 2022, Mithila Makhana received a Geographical Indication (GI) tag — the same class of protection as Darjeeling tea.
A GI tag certifies that a product’s qualities are tied to its region: the ponds, the climate, and the generational skill of Mithila’s harvesting communities.
For farmers, it means recognition and better prices. For you, it is an authenticity mark — and Makhanza sources exclusively from this belt.
Every Makhanza foxnut starts underwater — in the lotus ponds of Mithila, Bihar, where farmers dive to collect the seeds by hand.
The seeds are sun-dried, graded, then popped over open flame with a wooden mallet — a craft passed down through generations. Mithila makhana even carries a GI (Geographical Indication) tag recognising this heritage.
We work directly with farmer families, paying fair prices and keeping the craft alive. That is the honest harvest on every pack.
Answers come from live stock and pricing on this site. Anything else reaches the MAKHANZA team directly.
