A senior official of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Exports Development Authority (APEDA) has said that the Government of United States is in the process of clearing consignments of basmati rice from India.
The consignments were detained by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) earlier for traces of pesticide called tricyclazole, which is a widely used pesticide in rice-growing countries, including India, Thailand, Japan and China.
The pesticide manufactured by a US company is not registered and not found in the pesticide list that USFDA checks while detecting pesticide residues in the imported food items. If not a registered pesticide, the USFDA considers it illegal and not safe for human consumption.
The official said that out of 150 containers (20 tonnes each) of basmati rice from India that have been detained since July at various ports of the US, 85 per cent have been cleared.
Noting that domestic exporters have been facing hurdles in shipping basmati rice to the US due to the pesticide issue, the official said: “There is no panic situation. The issue is being resolved."
Meanwhile, the All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA) has taken up the issue with the US authority and has requested it to consider registration of tricyclazole.
“About 10-15 per cent of our detained containers have traces of tricyclazole, which is not registered in the US. We have informed them the traces of tricyclazole found in our containers are much lower as compared to other countries," AIREA president Vijay Sethia said.
The presence of tricyclazole in the aromatic grains are within safety levels of 0.02-0.04 ppm (parts per million) set by the Indian government. In comparison, Japan and Europe allow a maximum pesticide residual level of one and three ppm, respectively, he said.
India exports around 80,000 tonnes of basmati rice to the US annually. 50,000 tonnes have been shipped this year.
Source : fnbnews.com