Preferred Popcorn, a US-based company that supplies popcorn kernels, is looking to expand into the more premium ‘mushroom popcorn’ variants in India as gourmet popcorn culture gains ground.
Mushroom variants are rounder, denser kernels that are suitable for gourmet popcorn flavours like caramel or cheese as opposed to the regular butterfly variants.
Speaking to businessline, Thomas Peace, Director of Sales at Preferred Popcorn, said, “Traditionally, over the last ten years, we have been doing a lot of butterfly varieties. Now we are starting to diversify more into these mushroom varieties which allows us to sell to a different customer base who are doing more gourmet products.”
The expansion comes at a time when India’s popcorn industry is seeing increased premiumisation with brands such as 4700BC building a market for gourmet, ready-to-eat popcorn with premium flavours and packaging.
Preferred Popcorn, currently operates in India through a partnership with Chennai-based Gourmet Popcornica and supplies kernels in bulk to restaurants, retailers, movie theaters and other commercial establishments. The kernels are sourced directly from Indian farmers who cultivate it on 16 acres of land across nine States.
While Preferred popcorn exports kernels grown in its farms in Nebraska in the Midwestern US to over 70 countries, India is the only geography where the company operates with a domestic partner and grows the kernels locally.
“When our partners here first started importing from Preferred Popcorn the only struggle was that there was a 55 per cent import duty. So everything they were selling was getting marked up which became pretty cost prohibitive for many cinemas. So we thought maybe we could grow US style popcorn in India domestically,” he said.
Peace added that while the firm earlier faced challenges given India’s climatic conditions that are not ideal for popcorn cultivation, over the years it has experimented with planting seasons and genetic technology to cultivate popcorn suitable for Indian soil and weather.
Published on August 19, 2026
