Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) Indian rice exporters Thursday dismissed reports that Iran had banned an Indian basmati rice variety after finding it contaminated, and said exports to that country were still continuing.
“So far we have not received any official communication from the government of Iran or from the Indian embassy regarding the ban on Indian rice. The shipments are still moving,” Satnam Arora, managing director of Kohinoor Foods, told reporters here.

Last week there were reports that Iran had banned the Pusa-1121 rice variety after a laboratory in that country reportedly detected traces of arsenic, cadmium and lead in the rice.

“The reports about the rice contamination are not officially confirmed. It was done by hand picking 13 rice brands from a retail outlet and it didn’t specify that the contaminated brand was Indian,” Vikaran Awasty, managing director of Bush Foods Overseas, told reporters.

According to Awasty, there was no scientific basis of the test and it was not done by government officials. The government of Iran is already examining the matter and re-testing the samples.

“We are exporting our rices to the European Union and the US, and complying with the highest safety standards and so far there has been no complains. Iran is a big market and we are complying with their standards as well,” Awasty said.

“We have also invited delegates to come and visit our factories and rice farms.”

According to Arora, the origin of such reports is based on a statement by B.L. Bhardwaj, director of Centre of Advanced Studies of Punjab’s agriculture department, who had earlier said in an interview that farmers should avoid sowing of crops in areas where water and soil had concentration of heavy metals.

“He was completely misquoted and his statements were taken out of context,” Arora said.

India exports about 10 lakh tonnes of Pusa 1121 variety of rice every year and Iran constitutes almost 65 percent of the whole market.