Russia has banned the import of rice from India after finding pesticides in the supplies.
The Russian Agency on Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance issued the notification in April after it detected 'dimethoate' in the Indian rice, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh stated in a written reply that a similar ban had been imposed by the agency in December last year too, not only on import of rice from India but also from Thailand , Vietnam, Sri Lanka and the United States.
The latest ban, however, violates a protocol signed between India and the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of the Russian Federation in February, the minister said. The government is taking up the matter with the Russian authorities, he added.
In a separate reply, Ramesh said while there was no proposal to import wheat from Paksitan, any company or country that met the specifications of the State Trading Corporation, which had floated a tender to import one million tonnes of wheat, could bid for the tender. During the past financial year, there were no wheat imports from Pakistan.
