The Pakistani rice exporters are dire straits over the non- existence of Geographical Indication (GI) Laws and GI Registry in the country, as this may cause a 50 percent decline in the export of Basmati rice.
India would encourage snatching the identity of Pakistan's origin traditional products, which are now being grown both sides of the border due to the absence of GI Laws and GI Registry.
India enforcing its GI laws and GI Registry has started registering not only its own products but also Pakistani origin products now being grown in India also. Recently, India had registered Pakistani origin Super Basmati as its own GI and allowed Indian exporters to export this commodity world-wide.
Brigadier Anil Adlakhs, Executive Director of All-India Rice Exporters Association said that after registration of Super Basmati as Indian GI and its export, India would capture 40 to 50 percent share of the Pakistani Basmati rice world over.
"The situation has become very critical for Pakistani products and the government should take immediate and necessary steps to stop India from registering Pakistani origin products as their GI," a leading Pakistani exporter said and added that India could move forward to register other Pakistani origin products grown on both side as its GI.
He said that it is need of the hour to protect our prime heritage products like Basmati, Sindhery mango, kinoo, Sukkur chohara, aseel date, Kasuri methi, Multani mitti, Hala furniture, Sindhi ajrak, Kunri dandicut chillies, etc through the right route.
India has already enforced GI law and GI Registry and proceeding registration of its GI products like Banarsi sari, Kohlpuri chappal and even it has registered Supper Basmati as its own GI product.
A leading Karachi based exporter, Shamsul Islam Khan said that no GI laws exist in Pakistan and if no such laws were constituted, India would be in a win-win position in the global market.
"The GI law exists in the EU and other global markets and in case of any dispute between Pakistan and India over any product India would be in a favourable position against Pakistan because of the presence of these laws", he added.
Haji Abdul Majeed, Chairman, Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) termed the step of registering Super Basmati in India totally illegal and unethical. He said Super Basmati was a traditional Pakistani product, which was developed in Pakistan with the efforts of Pakistani agriculturists and it was being grown in Pakistan for the past 12 years.
Former chairman REAP Abdul Rahim Janoo said that India has no right to register Super Basmati as its own GI and added that Government of Pakistan should take necessary steps to stop India from resorting to such an illegal step otherwise it would be harmful for Pakistani exports.
All the stake holders of Basmati rice including growers, millers, processors, traders and exporters urged the government to promote geographical indication law to arrest rising controversy over Basmati registration and to save the country's exports in the global markets.
Super Bamati rice, is purely a Pakistani origin product and contributes a major share in rice export, which has become the second biggest agricultural product exported after cotton and has crossed $1 billion mark in the current fiscal year.
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