The basmati rice is now playing the spoil sport with Pakistan government-backed Trading Corporation of Pakistan serving a legal notice to the government. This has put a question mark over the future of basmati rice trading in Punjab
The Pakistani company has claimed Indian exporters were not eligible to use the “Super” variety of Basmati and claim duty free benefit given by the European Union. Pakistan believes India’s registration of the variety could hit its international market. Pakistan exports close to 800,000 tonnes of the variety annually.
The Indian government had signed an MoU with agriculture food and processed export development Authority for setting up agriculture export zone for Basmati a few years ago. While it is yet to take off, the latest development is bound to affect the trade.
Scientists from Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana told FE on Friday that Super Basmati was registered as a Indian variety only after research done by Punjab Agricultural University. They emphasised that despite the PAU study being available with the government, officials failed to move ahead with the issue till Pakistan went ahead and registered the Pusa variety as theirs. Pakistan had insisted that export of the “Super” variety from India was illegal since it was a hybrid of Basmati developed by their
scientists.
In the back drop of this, the MoU signed to protect and promote Basmati rice produced in the border districts of Punjab seems to be in trouble. Already, the contract farming, introduced by the Punjab Agro Food Corporation has failed because the government act on it to capitalise it.