www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

Commercial cultivation of genetically modified variety of rice in India
could lead to restrictions being imposed by the European Union on the
country's grain export to the region, the industry has warned, October 2006.

The country's leading rice exporters, who are planning to meet the
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar with their demand on this issue, said that
EU has introduced new test requirements for rice import from the US after
some consignments were found to be contaminated with unauthorised GM
varieties.

"Currently, the EU restrictions are applied to the US only. But as other
countries flirt with GM, we can expect similar restrictions applied to them
as well," the country's largest Basmati rice exporter Tilda Riceland's
Director R S Seshadri told PTI.

The rice industry is against the commercialisation of GM variety, another
leading Basmati exporter Kohinoor Foods' Managing Director Gurnam Arora
said.

"The US is now facing problems due to contamination of GM rice with other
non-GM varieties in its export consignment to Europe," Seshadri said.

America has a well-established export market of 3,00,000 tonnes in Europe.
However, after the US government identified an unauthorised GM variety in
its rice supply, the European Commission responded by introducing new test
requirements.

"Although test results showed that the contamination is approximately 1
grain in 3,000, the EU's rule of zero tolerance for any unauthorised GM, the
situation is extremely volatile with the prospect of further restrictions
beingintroduced," Sheshadri said.

GM rice variety remains illegal in Europe unless and until the specific
variety has undergone rigorous approval, he added.

Any GM varieties that might be cultivated in India in the future would have
to get prior approval by the EU before export to the region. Otherwise, we
can expect the same import restrictions to all Indian rice, including
Basmati, he cautioned while adding, "we cannot allow something like that to
happen to Basmati."

As there is a huge debate going on in the world about the acceptability of
GM produce, Chanana said, "GM rice is not currently the requirement of the
nation. We are not prepared for its consequences. Hence India should not
allow GM rice on its soil."

[www.hindu.com]

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