ISLAMABAD, Aug 31: Pakistan will submit in the next couple of days a written reply to four major concerns raised by the Russian Federal Veterinary and Phyto-sanitary Surveillance Services (VPSS) over the quality of Pakistani rice banned for import in December 2006, sources said.

The VPSS has demanded report from the federal ministry of food, agriculture and livestock (Minfal) on four major issues, including phyto-sanitary, fumigation and storage process for exportable rice in the country, besides list of pesticides used by farmers on rice crop and their residual impacts.

The news about the use of internationally banned pesticides in Pakistan is considered as the main reason behind the Russian concerns over the possible health-related complications consumers can face after using Pakistani rice.

“Our replies are ready and we will dispatch these to VPSS in the next few days,” Rice Commissioner at Minfal, Inyatullah Khan told Dawn on Friday.

He said that almost 80 per cent of the issues had been resolved with Moscow and that Islamabad hoped to revive its export to the Russian market soon.

The VPSS had asked for Minfal’s reply on these issues after the visit of a Pakistani delegation to Moscow on August 12, comprising officials of Minfal and Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (Reap).

Earlier in April, a VPSS team had visited Pakistan to inspect the quality of local rice and storage and processing facilities.

The Russian phyto-sanitary watchdog had imposed ban on the import of Pakistani rice after detecting presence of an insect — Khapara Beetle — in rice shipments from Pakistan.

Minfal authorities hope that Russia may formally announce lifting of the ban in the same manner as it had lifted the ban on Indian rice a couple of months back. The ban has been lifted partially as India is busy in removing the Russian concerns.

Russia had imposed ban on the import of rice from India and Vietnam last year on health-related grounds.

The rice exporters are of the view that Khapra Beetle was primarily found in wheat stocks and there was a possibility that the rice shipped to Russia was stocked close to a wheat godown.

Russia used to import half a million tons of rice every year before slapping a tariff of 70 euros ($92.32) per ton in April 2005, which shrank its rice imports to 200,000 tons as exporters found the tariff too heavy.

Before the end of the last calendar year, Russia had stopped Šall rice imports on health grounds but had promised to resume imports later under stricter control . India is the main rice supplier to Russia followed by China, Vietnam and Thailand.