Russia bans rice import from India

NEW DELHI: Russia has imposed a ban on import of rice from India due to detection of pesticides in the foodgrain, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

"The Russian Agency on Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance issued a notification in April imposing a ban on rice import from India due to the purported detection of pesticides," Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh said in a written reply.

The agency had detected 'dimethoate', not permissible under Russian regulations, he said.

A similar ban was imposed by the agency in December last year on import from India, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and the US.

A delegation from the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of the Russian Federation had visited India in February, during which a protocol was negotiated, signed by both the sides.

The ban imposed recently violates the protocol and the government is taking the matter with the Russian authorities, Ramesh said.

During 2005-06, India had exported 24,955.54 million tonnes of rice to Russia.

In a separate query, Ramesh said while there is no proposal to import wheat from Pakistan, any company or country that met the specifications of STC, which has floated a tender to import one million tonnes of wheat, could bid for the tender. During 2006-07, no wheat was imported from Pakistan.