Basmati acreage to be marked

Rice to be registered before Safta comes into effect on July 1

India will soon get a geographical indicator for basmati rice as the government has decided to register the commodity in the country.

This follows the repeated failure of Indian government to register the rice jointly in India and Pakistan.

"Before the South Asian Free Trade Agreement comes into effect on July 1, we will get the geographical indicator for basmati rice. It should be completed within the next two months," a senior government official of the commerce and industry ministry told Business Standard.

Pakistan does not not have a Geographical Indicator (GI) Act in place. "The issue will take longer as they yet have to put the Act in place. While they have been working on it for over two years, there is not much progress," the official added.

The issue arose when both India and Pakistan sought GIs for basmati rice in their respective countries. Since both nations questioned the others' legitimacy of a GI, it was decided that the issue would be taken up jointly.

However, even after repeated dialogues, the countries have not been able to file a joint application for geographical indicator.

A geographical indicator will be registered under the association of basmati rice growers. The producers of a product registered as a geographical indicator are thus safeguarded under any fraud or duplicity of the product.