ISLAMABAD, April 17: The government has decided to carry out DNA testing of rice for verifying quality of the commodity before exporting it to the European markets.

An official source in the commerce ministry told Dawn on Saturday that the decision was taken following the request of the European Union asking Pakistan to carry out DNA testing of all samples of rice currently being exported to EU.

The testing was aimed at ensuring that only those varieties of rice which were approved for duty concessions are shipped to Europe.

According to the official, the DNA testing would be carried out in the National Institute for Bio-Technology and Genetic Engineering, Faisalabad.

These tests were supposed to protect the EU consumers and for the Pakistani exporters this was like a non-tariff barrier which might affect export of rice to EU markets.

This was a follow up of a recent decision by EU for exclusion of Pakistan's super basmati from abatement list. The implementation of the decision was later extended up to March 31, 2004.

The EU decision to be effective from April 1 would result in the levy of import duty at the rate of 250 euro per ton on import of super basmati in the EU member countries making Pakistani rice less competitive.