India Soon To Decide Stand On Rice Patent

The Central government is concerned over the grant of a patent to a US firm to sell rice under the Basmati brand name and will soon decide its course of action, a senior agriculture ministry official said on Thursday.

No decision has been taken so far, it is a very recent happening and the government will decide on this matter shortly, agriculture commissioner C R Hazra told Reuters.

Hazra said officials of the agriculture ministry and the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) were deliberating on the specific action needed on the matter. The US Patent Office in September 1997 granted a patent to rice firm Ricetec Inc to sell rice under the brand name of Basmati, an aromatic variety of rice.

 

The patent will allow only Ricetec to sell a new variety of Basmati rice developed by the company under the name of Basmati, both in the country and for exports. Indian exporters have strongly criticised the grant and have urged the government to protest against the patent saying that Basmati is only grown in India and Pakistan.

They have patented the very word Basmati, so in future that may create a problem, Hazra said. Government officials have said they were examining options to appeal to the US Patent Office to withdraw the grant.

Ricetec said last week it was surprised by Indias plan to appeal against the ruling and said it had been selling Basmati rice for the past 20 years. Once the material has been patented, then the country in which it has been patented and the company (holding the patent) may claim royalty on its use, Hazra said.

He said this could have a impact on the future use of this particular rice. As a kind of commodity, we are all concerned and we will

have to take a serious view on this and definitely government will take it up appropriately, Hazra said.

The All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA) said in a statement on Thursday the patent had been granted inadvertently.

We believe when the relevant evidence is presented at the appropriate time the patent will be suitably modified, AIREA executive director Anil Adlakha said.

India annually grows about 650,000 tonnes of Basmati rice mainly in the foothills of northern Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. In 1996/97 (April-March) India exported 523,000 tonnes of Basmati to the Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia, Europe and the United States. lIndia Abroad News Service