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Karachi:
Russia has warned Pakistan that it will again ban rice imports if phytosanitary issues in Moscow are not resolved after quarantine organisms were detected in rice consignments.
The warning comes after Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (FSVPS) issued a notification regarding a consignment of rice imported from Pakistan that violated international and Russian phytosanitary requirements.
The notice on April 2 highlighted the presence of the quarantine organism “Megaselia scalaris (Loew)” in the rice.
The trade representative of Pakistan’s embassy in Russia was asked to investigate the matter immediately.
Russian authorities have written to the Pakistani Embassy to prevent such violations and ensure that all Pakistani rice exporters adhere to phytosanitary standards to ensure the safety of agricultural products traded between the two countries.
The Trade Department of the Pakistan Embassy in Moscow, while forwarding the letter from the Russian authorities to the Plant Protection Division of the Ministry of Food Security and other relevant government departments, warned that rice exports may be banned in the future if more cases arise. A complaint was received from the Russian authorities.
Russia had previously banned rice imports from Pakistan in 2019 due to health and safety reasons.
Similarly, in December 2006, Russia stopped importing rice from Pakistan on the grounds that it did not meet food safety standards.
Chela Ram Kewlani, president of the Pakistan Rice Exporters Association, said Pakistani rice exporters need to be very careful while selecting and packaging all rice for export.
He said Pakistan benefited from India’s ban on exports of non-basmati rice last year, given that India accounts for nearly 40% of the global rice trade.
Last year, India banned the export of non-basmati white and parboiled rice.
According to a major rice dealer in Pakistan, about 700,000 tons of rice were exported in December 2023 alone, the highest level in a single month this fiscal year.
He said Pakistan exported rice last year, with production and demand increasing and global prices rising.
Rice Export Corporation predicts that Pakistan’s basmati rice exports will increase by 60% to more than 1 million tons, and non-basmati rice exports will increase by 36% to 4.25 million tons.
It aims to export more than 5 million tons of rice in the 2023/2024 fiscal year, which will be much higher than the 3.7 million tons exported in the previous fiscal year.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
