ISLAMABAD, May 27: India has formally adopted Pakistan’s super basmati rice for official export that could cause a loss of up to 40 per cent of the world market to Islamabad for which exporters blame agriculture and commerce ministries.

Informed sources told Dawn on Saturday that the Indian commerce ministry had issued a notification on May 24, amending the Export of Basmati Rice (Quality Control and Inspection) Rules, 2003 to allow export of ‘super basmati’ from India as an evolved (hybrid) variety.

With this decision, Indian exporters could label and market this variety as basmati in the overseas sector, the sources said and added basmati was yet to be notified by the Indian agriculture ministry under the country’s Seed Act, which until now prohibited its sale in the local market with the same brand name.

Pakistan previously had a monopoly over super basmati but the latest Indian ratification would take away 40 per cent of Pakistan’s market share in the traditional Middle Eastern markets from the coming season by the variety at prices lower than offered by Pakistan.

“All this happened because of the gross negligence of the Pakistani ministries of agriculture and commerce towards the issue. “We had informed these ministries as early as on March 7, and in a meeting at the commerce ministry held on March 18, that India is going to notify super basmati rice for official growth and export,” a leading basmati exporter, Zahid Khawaja, told this reporter by telephone from Lahore.

Mr Khawaja said exporters had requested the commerce ministry to protest at this development but most unfortunately it seems no protest was made in time. “Now they have officially notified the growth and export of super basmati rice in India as we had warned in advance,” he added.

“This is a direct Indian attack on Pakistan’s trade and a belligerent move to annex our exclusive indigenously developed authentic super basmati rice that they have been running down in the past,” he added.

A letter from basmati rice exporters, a copy of which was made available to Dawn, suggested immediate protest from the ministries of commerce and agriculture besides, asking the Pakistani foreign office to lodge a protest and demand that India should not grow or export super basmati without Pakistan’s permission.

“We would like that all destination markets and governments should be informed through our respective trade offices to disallow super basmati import from India as it is Pakistan’s indigenous variety that we have not agreed to share with India,” the letter added.

The entire stakeholders in basmati rice trade- growers, sellers, millers, dealers, traders, wholesalers, retailers and exporters—demand that the government most urgently promulgates the GI Act or Ordinance for which draft was provided by the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (Reap) as early as 2000.

“Once, we have a specific GI law in place, it may be possible to protect our basmati generally as our GI and also protect super as our sub-GI,” the letter added.

It may be mentioned that in 1998 two brothers — Kuldip Singh and Surinder Singh — came to Pakistan from India on pilgrimage to the Sikh holy places. On way back, they took two kg of super basmati seeds with them, and this variety started multiplication in India.

In the kharif 2003 season, the Indian Punjab agricultural university (PAU) at Ludhiana officially released ‘super’ after working on these Pakistani seeds for about three years. Through scientific selection and screening, the seed was purified to suit the Indian field conditions and was released by the name ‘Shabnam’.