For several months, India and Pakistan have been tearing each other apart around a product from their common heritage, the basmati, to find out which one will be authorized to sell under this name in the European Union this rice so much appreciated by consumers.
India has filed a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) application with the European Commission which, if accepted, would guarantee the exclusive use of the basmati name in the European Union.
Pakistan, the only other exporting country in the world of this aromatic rice with long and fine grains grown in the Himalayan foothills, immediately opposed the request published in September 2020 in the Official Journal of the EU. The Indian candidacy has caused a wave of panic in Pakistan, which risks losing an important export market, and has fueled the historic rivalry between the two nuclear powers born of the partition of 1947. “There it is really one of the consequences of the partition which is quite violent and painful enough for this culture and this community of rice production. », Estimates Delphine Marie-Vivien, legal researcher at the Center for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD).
"It's like throwing an atomic bomb on us," worries AFP Ghulam Murtaza, co-owner of Al-Barkat Rice Mills, a rice mill located about 30 km south of Lahore, in the province of Punjab, basmati rice granary in Pakistan.
Pakistan is the 4th largest exporter of rice in the world, with 4.5 million tonnes exported in 2019, for a value of 2.2 billion dollars (1.8 billion euros), according to the United Nations for food and agriculture (FAO).
India is first with 9.7 million tonnes and 6.8 billion dollars.
"A very important market"
The EU imports around 300,000 tonnes of basmati per year, two-thirds of Pakistani origin and one-third Indian, according to the European Commission. Pakistan has sharply increased its basmati exports to the EU over the past three years, taking advantage of India's difficulties in adapting to stricter European pesticide standards. “For us, it's a very, very important market,” concedes Malik Faisal Jahangir, vice-president of the Pakistan Rice Exporters Association (Reap).
The IGP establishes an intellectual property right for products whose characteristics are linked to the geographical location in which at least one stage of its production, transformation and preparation process takes place.
It differs from the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), for which all these steps must take place in the region concerned.
Products registered in this way are legally protected against imitation and misuse within the EU.
Based on recognized know-how, they can thus be sold at a higher price.
“What is certain is that the historical cradle of cultivation of this rice is really the full Indo-Gangetic, therefore, India and Pakistan.
», Specifies Delphine Marie-Vivien.
India emphasizes that it did not claim in its application that it was the only one to produce basmati.
But by applying for IGP in its own name, it nevertheless seeks to be recognized as such.
"It was obvious that Pakistan was going to oppose this request, because it means for him to be banned from the European market with the name basmati", specifies the researcher.
Upcoming negotiations
The two countries must now negotiate to try to find an amicable agreement, as foreseen by the European procedure, but the discussions have not yet started.
The consultation period has been extended "until September 2021" at the request of India, a spokesperson for the European Commission told AFP.
After years of procrastination, the Pakistani government urgently registered the Basmati name as a geographical indication in its own territory in January, a prerequisite for any action before the EU.
In the process, he announced that he would do the same with pink Himalayan salt and other products he wants to protect.
Slight signs of rapprochement have emerged in recent weeks between the two countries, which were on the brink of a new war in 2019. Pakistan hopes to take the opportunity to convince India to submit a "joint application" on behalf of the country. the common heritage of basmati, says Jahangir.
If no agreement was found and the EU chose to agree with India, Pakistan could take the matter to European justice or in turn present its own candidacy.
But it would take a few years for the EU to examine it, and the Pakistani rice industry would in the meantime be affected in the long term.
"There have already been quite a few cases of opposition to requests for Geographical Indications in Europe and each time a compromise has been found", remarks Ms. Marie-Vivien, however.