Brussels plays for time as New Delhi and neighbouring Pakistan press competing claims to grain’s protected status.

Andy Bounds in Brussels and Humza Jilani in Islamabad

A dispute over the protected status of basmati rice is adding to tensions between India and Pakistan, threatening to complicate New Delhi’s push for a trade deal with the EU.

The South Asian rivals are the world’s biggest producers of the grain and each claim exclusive use of the term, bidding to restrict the “basmati” label to rice grown in a designated area and thus allowing producers there to charge a premium.

EU negotiators who are in New Delhi to seal a trade agreement are being pressured to accept India’s right to use the designation basmati, according to officials. But that would cause a diplomatic rift with Islamabad, so Brussels is playing for time, one official said. 

India has waited seven years for its application to protect the term in the EU market to be recognised and is growing impatient. 

In 2023, Pakistan filed a rival application to define the rice’s production area and methods, including four districts in Pakistan-administered Kashmir — an area India claims as its own.

EU officials note that approving Pakistan’s claim would imply de facto recognition of its claim to sovereignty over those lands, which would outrage New Delhi.

For both India and Pakistan, the grain has long been a symbol of national pride. It is mostly cultivated in the paddies of historic Punjab, the breadbasket region now divided between the arch-rivals who have fought numerous wars over the disputed Kashmir territory.

In the early 2000s, Pakistan supported an Indian effort to overturn patents for basmati rice held by Texas-based company RiceTec, which the two South Asian powers at the time accused of committing “biopiracy”. They also launched working groups to file a joint application to the EU. 

But EU hopes that the two countries could work together were dashed when militants, who India and western governments say were backed by Pakistani intelligence, killed more than 100 people in Mumbai in late 2008.

The attacks poisoned the two sides’ willingness to collaborate, even on issues of mutual economic interest. In 2018, India proceeded with an application for sole ownership, enraging Pakistan. 

Although Pakistan’s application recognises that basmati is also grown in some regions of India, New Delhi is seeking sole ownership of the rice variety, potentially hitting Pakistani exporters who rely on the basmati title to sell their grains.

“The proceedings in relation to both Indian and Pakistani applications are running in parallel,” the EU delegation in Pakistan said in a statement. Both applications for the protected geographical indication label are ‘‘treated carefully’’ and the commission is aware of their ‘‘sensitive nature”, the statement said.

Ibrahim Shafiq, director of exports at Lahore-based Latif Rice Mills, said India’s bid for an exclusive geographic indication would mean Pakistani sellers could lose the right to label their grain as basmati, and therefore also “lose both premium pricing and market share”.

Basmati sells for roughly $200 to $300 more per tonne than generic varieties, he said. “It would be a big hit, to us and to other basmati exporters in the country overall.” 

Foreign and trade officials in New Delhi did not reply to requests for comment.

India’s commerce minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday following a visit by an EU trade delegation that his country was working with bloc to finalise a free trade agreement that would ‘‘benefit businesses and consumers on both sides’’.

Additional reporting by Andres Schipani in Kathmandu

Published Date: September 15, 2025