the basmati rice dispute between India and Pakistan

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India yesterday presented the regulatory parameters corresponding to the favorite cereal since the time of the Mughal emperors. Pakistan had previously opposed granting India a protected GI, which would have reduced its exports. With the removal of protectionist measures, Indian exports will increase in the coming months.

Milan () – The latest political dispute between India and Pakistan could take place in the kitchen: as Delhi prepares to lift restrictions on rice exports, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) yesterday presented a series of Regulatory parameters on basmati rice with respect to the quality, fragrance and characteristics of the grains of this low glycemic index cereal.

The standards, which will be applied from August, fix, among other things, the average size, the elongation of the grains with cooking and the concentration of amylose and uric acid. If these parameters are not met, it will not be possible to speak of basmati rice. “This will establish fair practices in the basmati trade and protect the interests of consumers,” Health and Family Welfare Minister Mansukh Mandaviya wrote on Twitter.

But the issue is bound to reignite a dispute with neighboring Pakistan, which had already opposed the European Union’s recognition of a protected geographical indication (PGI) for Indian rice. If the application submitted in 2020 to the EU Commission had been accepted, the term “basmati” would have been forever linked to the grain that is produced in India, reducing Pakistani exports.

Actually as of 2016 Islamabad had taken advantage of Delhi’s difficulties in meeting strict European standards on the use of pesticides to expand its market towards the EU, surpassing in 2020 Indian exports to Europe. The European Commission had asked the two countries, the world’s sole exporters of basmati rice, to settle the dispute, in the hope that a joint application would be filed, but that has not happened yet.

Basmati cultivation is dictated by geography and cold climate, and is therefore concentrated in the regions at the foot of the Himalayas. Highly prized in the kitchens of the Mughal emperors, basmati comes in three colors: white, red and brown. According to some academic studies, the red variety originates from the provinces of Lahore and Multan, which are now part of Pakistan, while the word “basmati” is first mentioned in a popular Punjabi novel written in 1766 or 1767. Ironically, these reasons were cited by India to challenge RiceTec’s development of US varieties of basmati rice in Texas. India, supported by Pakistan, won the case in 2001, establishing that the term “basmati” could only be used for rice grown in these two countries.

United Nations data shows that India is the world’s top rice exporter with an annual profit of $6.8 billion, while Pakistan ranks fourth with $2.2 billion. Two thirds of the world’s basmati exports come from India, which -according to some rumors published by Bloomberg in recent days- could soon withdraw the protectionist measures applied to rice (and wheat and sugar) given that internal prices appear to have stabilized and the government has managed to buy enough grain quotas to cover its social assistance programs, aimed at the poorest sectors of the population.

According to other projections, this year Indian basmati exports could grow by 15% compared to last year, considering that several Middle Eastern countries, already tested by the experience of the war in Ukraine, will try to increase their stocks despite the increase in prices. Prices Data from the Delhi Ministry of Commerce indicates that basmati exports grew by 11 percent in the first half of the 2022-23 fiscal year.

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