The Hindu Business Line : `Super' row over Basmati in the making

India's decision to notify super basmati rice for export, a variety developed originally by Pakistan, might endanger its own unique status in the export of Pusa basmati, an indigenously developed cross-bred and commercial variety, which fetches $300 million and above a year.

Rice exporters here told Business Line that by notifying Super basmati for export, the Indian authorities have comprehensively given up the armoury to fight the battle as the race to capture market would turn out to be a zero-sum game with India losing its own monopoly status in Pusa basmati too. If Pakistan is not keen on filing a bio-piracy case against India for notifying the `super', it could quietly notify pusa basmati for export in a race to the bottom. India exports super basmati of six lakh tonnes.

Tit for tat

They cite an agreement in the form of an exchange of letters between the European Union and Islamabad under which Pakistan has already intimated the EU that it could export basmati 370, Pusa basmati and super basmati a couple of years ago. Now that India has notified the export of super, Islamabad might take a trade defence measure in the form of developing Indian Pusa basmati in its land and commercialise its exports in no time, just as India did with Pakistan's super starting in 2002.

New varieties

As Pusa 1 exported by India fetches $900 a tonne in the West Asian markets, any loss of this monopoly needs to be seriously viewed as India is yet to develop new varieties of basmati of equal quality to export them commercially in the near future, they apprehend.

Already Pakistani exporters deem Indian Pusa variety non-basmati due to the absence of aroma and being photoperiod insensitive.

By taking up Pakistan-developed super, India might overtly countenance the claim super basmati is superior to any Indian rice varieties and that is the reason why India is keen on notifying super for export. This is bound to damage the image of India's Pusa basmati 1, as it is a good grain with credible market acceptability in West Asia, European and North American markets.

An expert on basmati rice in Pakistan, Mr Zahid Khwaja, was on record that India has failed to produce any new basmati variety.

The recent notification by India to export super basmati has aroused the anger of Pakistani rice exporters, who demand that they should also export Pusa variety being exported by India or subject India to a bio-piracy suit.

Cost advantage

What worries Indian exporters of Pusa is the fact that Islamabad commands a cost advantage in terms of exchange rate differential and Pakistani rice exporters bear no tax burden and intermediaries and do undertake large farming which would give a run to Pakistan's proposal to export Pusa basmati.

Even as Pakistan and India are joining hands to get a common trademark for basmati rice, as they agreed to jointly file a case to claim intellectual property rights (IPR) over it worldwide, the usurpation of each other's basmati variety might permanently stall the joint move for registration of basmati as a geographical indication (GI), enabling other clone or varieties grown in Texas, Australia and Thailand, Bangladesh, Hyderabad Decca or even Rajasthan as basmati rice, trade experts contend.

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