ISLAMABAD, Aug 9: Major rice exporters have urged the government to ask for early amendments in the draft European Union (EU) rice regulation regime for maintaining two lists separating the varieties of rice on the basis of origin.

Well-placed sources told Dawn on Monday that rice exporters had asked the government that Pakistan should seek individual varieties to be mentioned and tested for DNA in separate lists. The new rice regime will be effective from September 1, 2004.

This could expose false Indian claims of so-called 'traditional' basmati, when the marketing year starts with the new regulation in place, they added. "We expect pusa, duplicate basmati, to be their major variety as opposed to the so-called 'traditional'.

Our super should therefore receive the advantage, if individual variety declaration/testing is the norm as our shipments are basically pure and clear in super basmati variety," they added.

The annexe I of the draft lists 3 basmati varieties from Pakistan and 7 basmati varieties from India as one simple list. "Our requirement as also pointed out before Pakistan agreed to the EU offer is two lists separating the varieties on the basis of origin in which only one variety basmati-370 can appear on both lists," they asked.

It is expected that the formal final regulation would appear in the Official Journal of the EU during August with implementation date from September 1, 2004, that was, for all rice entering the EU on or beyond this date.

The Rice Association (RA) of the United Kingdom wished that individual varieties should not be tested and showed indication towards preference for a single basmati label for all varieties.

"This preference emanates from the fact that mostly Indian influenced RA seems to be following the line toed by Indians who faced some difficulties in mentioning exact varieties in the Certificates of Authenticity earlier this year claiming most of their rice gets mixed prior to export stage," the sources said.

According to the sources, the EU had earlier rejected this reason for not mentioning exact varieties and pointed out that Pakistan was already doing it without problem so why should it be different for India.

The RA also expressed the hope that they might be able to seek such amendments when the regulation was presented to the European Parliament around November 2004.

The sources said that Pakistan needs to do some ground work to avoid any undesirable outcome as a result of the regulation being amended at the European Parliament stage. "We should resist all moves from all quarters to dilute the negotiated agreement with undesirable amendments firmly," the sources added.