Cases of rejection of non-basmati rice consignments shipped by India to the European Union (UK excluded) due to higher than permitted pesticide residues increased between 2020 and 2024 from 3 to 37. In contrast, the number of rejection of Pakistani non-basmati rice consignments has dropped from 54 in 2020 to 2 in 2024, industry sources said.
“This is a serious concern now as the government has recently told Parliament that no rejection of consignments dut to aflatoxin has been reported for export from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu,” said a trade source, adding there is a need for analysis and solution to the whole issue.
According to data maintained byApeda (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority), export of non-basmati rice to EU countries was 47,888 tonnes (worth $29.7 million) during April-December of current fiscal whereas it was 65,770 tonnes (worth $38.23 million) during entire 2023-24 fiscal. India exported 66,236 tonnes in 2020-21, too.
Pak turns aggressive
On the other hand, Pakistan’s export of non-basmati rice to EU countries is insignificant out of its total export of 5.25 million tonnes (mt) in 2023-24 (July-June) from 3.12 mt in 2022-23. Its major non-basmati export destinations include Indonesia, Malaysia, Afghanistan, Kenya, Senegal and the Philippines. In Europe (not EU), the UK bought close to 0.1 mt of non-basmati from Pakistan, while Italy imported over 60,000 tonnes and Belgium more that 56,000 tonnes in 2023-24.
Now that India opened up its non-basmati export, Pakistan is aggressively trying to retain the market it had gained when India banned export, trade sources said, adding the compliance to strict MRLs is only one such instance.
On the other hand, India’s Directorate-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has been implementing mandatory “Certificate of Inspection” in basmati Rice and non-basmati rice exported to the EU since 2018, under which Export Inspection Council/Export Inspection Agency certified that the consignment conform to maximum residue limit (MRL) fixed for different pesticides.
Trade sources said shipments from India may be allowed without a Certificate of Inspection, either due to customs’ lack of awareness or doubts about the issuing authorities’ credibility. No other reason seems to explain the rising trend of rejections.
“EU and UK are endeavouring to improve the competitiveness of industry through digitisation. This is going to increase Indian ethnic exports to Europe. India has past experiences of losing its export market in Europe due to quality. Therefore, the enforcement of DGFT notification by EIA and Customs is imperative for the future growth of our non-Basmati shipments,” said foreign trade analyst S Chandrasekaran.
Aflatoxin detection
The government, on March 11, said in the Lok Sabha that there have been a few cases of aflatoxin detection in the form of Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) in rice consignments exported from India to the EU. Trade sources said cases of aflatoxin detection in consignment was 1 in basmati rice and nil in non-basmati rice in both 2020 and 2021. But it increased to 3 in basmati rice and 4 in non-basmati rice in 2024 calendar year.
The government said the EU set its own MRLs for pesticides, based on the risk assessment carried out by it, and in many cases, those are lower (stricter) than the MRLs set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The comparative level of MRLs of aflatoxin set by the EU, the US and the FSSAI is 2 mg/kg, 20 mg/kg and 10 mg/kg, respectively, it said.
The government said State agriculture departments and agriculture universities conduct capacity building and sensitisation programmes for growers to adopt good agricultural practices and to ensure judicious use of agro-chemicals to ensure that India comply with the MRLs set by the EU and other importing nations.
