The All-India Rice Exporters’ Association, significant exporters, experts, and other stakeholders will be the subject of extensive talks by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) over the UK’s new code of practise (CoP) document on basmati rice.
APEDA will examine the CoP agreements and clauses to see whether there would be any immediate or long-term impacts on India’s basmati exports. According to APEDA, this proposal was made by the British Retail Consortium and The Rice Association, UK, the main body for the UK rice industry.
The organisation’s primary objective is to advance members’ interests in all matters pertaining to the import, cooking, processing, packaging, and marketing of rice. According to the authorities, this was also discussed with the Federation of European Rice Millers (FERM), AIREA, and the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP). It said that the CoP was a consensus established by the organisations addressing basmati rice commerce in the UK and not a regulatory tool. The largest basmati export organisation in India, AIREA, participated in the CoP’s development.
“The CoP is a voluntary regulation, and its scope was limited to the labelling of basmati rice sold in the UK. To ensure that their basmati rice is lawful, those that opt not to follow its criteria must fulfil comparable basic legal requirements, stressed APEDA.
The CoP identifies cultivars that have received certification from Indian and Pakistani authorities, according to the administration. The bulk of the well-known basmati cultivars that were required to be registered in accordance with the Indian Seeds Act of 1966 are included in it. The updated CoP now includes a number of recently-notified basmati varieties. Four varieties—Malviya Basmati Dhan, Pant Basmati 1, Vallabh Basmati 21, and Vallabh Basmati 24—were allegedly not grown as part of the CoP, according to APEDA.
Exports will thus not be impacted. However, as India did not have a registered variety of Punjab basmati, its removal from the list looked to be an error. There was a statement that said, “All recognised varieties with Punjab Basmati as a prefix have some numerical as a suffix in the varietal name such as Punjab Basmati 1, 2, 3 etc. and so has no impact on Indian basmati exports.”
APEDA noted, “The document has also referenced to the Food Standards Agency’s February 2003 publication as the basis for the Code, with the emphasis on “certain areas of Indo Gangetic Plains” about the dilution of the growing region, particularly the Indo-Gangetic Plains.