The US government is in the process of clearing Indian consignments of basmati rice held at its ports for traces of pesticide called tricyclazole, a senior official of the agri-export promotion body, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Exports Development Authority (Apeda) said.
Tricyclazole is a widely used pesticide in rice-growing countries, including India, Thailand, Japan and China.
“The US has cleared the maximum containers of basmati rice. It is in the process of examining the remaining few. The problem is easing," the official added.
As some containers of basmati rice had presence of a pesticide named tricyclazole, the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) had detained all consignments without physical examination, he said.
Tricyclazone, a pesticide manufactured by a US company, is, however, 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.
According to the government sources, 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 Apeda 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 allows 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 has been shipped this year.
