Islamabad: Amid increasing objections to rice charges abroad, including in the European Union (European Union), and the failure of the Ministry of Food Security and National Research (M/ONFSR) to effectively control these issues, the government has prepared what it calls the “minimum” new “measures Plant health of rice exports.
These measures apply to the countries that the DPP (DPP) lacks information on health and plant health import regulations (SPS).
This step aims to reduce the objections related to the limits of maximum waste (MRL) and flastoxin, maintaining the quarantine system in factories in Pakistan, and ensuring access to sustainable markets.
Industry people in the industry reveal that these measures have already existed for a long time. Requirements as follows:
1. Compulsory bumper
The new circular generates that each rice shipment is treated with aluminum phosphide (AlP) at the specified dose to eliminate pests. However, this requirement has already been imposed by former DPP officials. It is worth noting that the evaporation with Alp led to an objection in Italy due to the presence of red flour beetle, indicating that the stored grain lesions have developed resistance to this spray.
Experts stress the urgent need to replace Alp with alternative treatments such as heat treatment, controlled atmosphere, or gamma. Countries such as Australia, India, the United States of America, Russia, Mexico and New Zealand have already replaced alp with alternative treatments.
In addition, fears were raised on NPPO (National Plant Protection Organization) to restore rice with red flour beetle. Experts argue that this scourge is not classified as the scourge of quarantine in the European Union and that Italy could have allowed to cancel the load on the beach instead of refusing the shipment directly.
2. Compliance with international food safety standards
The new generalization of exporters requires guaranteeing the compliance of rice shipments to the levels of MRL, the levels of fungal toxins, and the testing of heavy metals as adopted by the PNAC approved laboratories, in line with the Codex Alimentarius committee. However, the sources claim that this condition was done since 2022 when the Ministry of Commerce (MC) and M/ONFSR took the third party test by SGS. Despite this, the objections continued.
3. Ships free of pollutants
According to circular rice charges, they should be free of strange substances such as herbal and soil seeds. Ironically, the current head of the quarantine administration, under the influence of importers through brokers, is framed the conditions of import in Pakistan to match Australia, India, the United States of America, Russia, New Zealand and Mexico. However, these conditions were already part of Pakistan’s quarantine bases and IPC guidelines.
Despite the introduction of news measures, those familiar with the industry reveal that the following political measures may be ignored by the Federal Ministry.
Two months ago, the Federal Minister directed Minister Kaeim Ajmal Chaudhry and Mr. and Qas Allam to obtain the conditions for the plant import of Pakistani rice from all 185 contracting parties in the International Plant Protection Agreement (IPPC) via the official IPPC call in Pakistan.
Likewise, the minister ordered the conditions of food safety from all parties to the Codex Alimentarius committee (CAC) through the Pakistani manuscript point designated within the DPP. However, although the National Food Safety Committee was notified in August 2024, the M/ONFSR minister did not hold a meeting to discuss its implementation.
The Pakistani contact point has sent official requests to the importing countries of plant import conditions before issuing plant health certificates. Many countries responded to various circumstances.
However, instead of implementing these conditions for each country, an experienced customs team imposed its own regulations, violating bases 62, 63 and 64 of Pakistan’s quarantine bases and IPPC/cac provisions. Moreover, critical tests of mineral oil and the presence of genetically modified organisms were ignored – a sign of European Union objections in 2023 and 2024 -.
Despite the federal ministerial directives, DPP has failed to implement or maintain SPS conditions from its commercial partners. Experts argue that rice objections will continue because M/ONFSR turns into blame by proposing a new food safety authority, which reflects the model of the Punjab Saf Bani failed.
Impact on rice exports in Pakistan:
These re -submitted vegetables aim to reduce rice rejection and ban due to MRL and Aflatoxin fears. However, those who are acquainted with industry believe that the real intention is to create a business interface instead of treating root causes.
Pakistan’s rice exports have already suffered due to a severe shortage of technical officials for inspections, which led to a delay in issuing vegetable health certificates and causing lost transport ships. Sources are increasingly frustrated by these delays and failure to appoint additional inspectors.
background:
Earlier, the investigation committee chaired by the former Interior Minister Shahid Khan – with authority by Prime Minister Shehabz Sharif – to unify the reasons for rice interception in the European Union. The committee blamed 17 DPP inspectors and former General Manager Mohamed Tariq Khan for their failure to request MRL and Aflatoxin reports when issuing vegetarian health certificates. However, the FIA’s investigation has also been involved in the previous debt after the registration of Fir No. 40/2024.
Sitecare and food safety experts argue that bureaucratic inefficiency has made these ram of redemption for technical officials without addressing the real causes of objection. These issues include poor agricultural practices, the use of unregistered pesticides, failure to monitor post -harvest periods, non -NASE and transportation, and insufficient biological security in treatment facilities. The responsibility for these shortcomings is with regional agricultural departments, food safety authorities, not DPP.
The results of Shahid Khan arrested 17 inspectors and the commentary of the general manager, causing international embarrassment to Pakistan. After that, the Secretary M/ONFSR WASEM Ajmal Chaudhry, on additional charges to Waqas Alam, a PAS group officer, who, despite the appointment of non -eligible employees from the Agricultural Research Council in PARC, failed to control the objections.
In order to realize his lack of experience, waqas Alam withdrew from his role within one month, and to turn responsibility to the exporters, which requires them to provide written pledges to be exempted to the DPP from responsibility. The subsequent appointment to the BS-19 Tahir ABBAS customizer also failed to reduce objections, as basic issues remained underestimated.
As expected, January 2025 witnessed eight objections to Pakistani rice shipments on the RASFF rapid alert system (RASFF), almost identical to the nine objections recorded in January 2024. This highlights the ineffectiveness of the M/ONFSR approach.
Now, in an attempt to show the work, the M/ONFSR and DPP release the minimum vegetarian health requirements. According to an official circular issued on February 6, 2025, these “new” guidelines were re -implemented – although they are long -term regulations – and continuing to violate safety quarantine safety and food safety.
