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G. Srinivasan

New Delhi, Aug. 26 Even as a Malaysian company has got registered the non-basmati premium variety rice, Ponni, trademark rights in Kuala Lumpur, the company’s parent Bernas Group has sought relaxation in the recent ban on such exports from India for supply to Malaysia.

Official sources told Business Line here that the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, Malaysia has recently written to the Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, that the State-owned Padiberas Nasional Berhad (Berna) group of companies had been lifting monthly 2,500 tonnes of Ponni rice from South India, before the ban was clamped by India since April 1, 2008 on the export of non-basmati rice including premium varieties such as Ponni and matta rice from the South.

The Malaysian company contends that steam Ponni rice being produced in southern India is reputed to possess a low glycemic index, which is salutary for management and control of diabetics, obesity and blood cholesterol. The country’s temporary cessation of this variety of rice for export has hit supply of this herbal rice to its clients in Malaysia and hence it has sought a special approval to allow non-basmati rice export of premium variety such as Ponni.

It is also interesting to note that even as the Malaysian Government has sought the India’s Commerce Minister’s intervention in ensuring the lifting of some quantity of Ponni rice by the State-owned Bernas group, one of the subsidiaries of Bernas, Faiza recently secured the trademark rights for “Ponni” under Clause 30 of the Malaysian Trademark Act for exclusive distribution of the premium non-basmati rice Ponni within Malaysia.

However, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda) has contested this trademark rights conferred on a Malaysian company, particularly when Ponni is being grown and exported from India.

Officials in the Department of Commerce are of the view that Apeda has been asked to study whether Ponni rice could be registered as a geographical indication (GI) or trademark or intellectual property, while Apeda has been contesting the claim of a Malaysian company as its own trademark through legal means.

Considering the recent setback suffered by Apeda in its opposition in the Collective Trade Mark case of Basmati Growers Association, which was dismissed by the Registrar of Trade Mark, Karachi, the course open to Ponni exporters is to get the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Department or Agricultural University of the State to take up the case of Ponni as a GI and get it registered so with the Registrar of GI in Chennai. Already precedents abound where GI has been awarded to Tea Board for Darjeeling tea and to the Tamil Nadu Government’s Department of Handlooms and Textiles for Madurai Sungudi (saree) and Kancheepuram silk.

Trade sources said that it is time for Apeda to involve itself in securing GI or collective trademark for specific products of its export interests instead of contesting cases within and abroad whenever its export interest of the said product is endangered by autonomous action from vested interests.

For this to happen, the Apeda Act must perforce be amended to enable the authority to extend its remit to include regulation of the domestic market too as owner of GI or collective trademark, the official sources said.

More Stories on : Rice | Exports & Imports

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