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LONDON (UK): Britain has accepted the quality of five varieties of Pakistan's Basmati being exported to it following a one-day meeting among representatives of the UK Food and Standard Agency, Pakistan, India and Basmati exporters here last Wednesday.

This was the 4th in a series of the meetings which were convened by Food and Standard Agency (FSA) here to work out a Code of Practice to protect the rights of British Basmati consumers against those unscrupulous people who were misusing the name of Basmati to sell other varieties of rice, the Vice Chairman of Export Promotion Bureau Tariq Puri who represented Pakistan at the meeting informed.

It was attended by representatives of Pakistan, Indian Basmati exporters, EU rice millers, UK- based rice consumers and retail associations. "We were able to get our Basmati accepted as is grown and exported from Pakistan", because of our principled stand, said Tariq Puri.

Pakistan is currently exports over US $ 50 million worth of Basmati to the UK. The meeting rejected three varieties of Indian Basmati as New Delhi failed to submit its samples to FSA in time to check the quality of its rice. However 11 varieties of Indian Basmati were accepted by FSA.

Indian delegation on the occasion tried hard to prove that Indian Basmati was superior to Pakistani Basmati but failed in its endeavour in face of the successful pleading by Tariq Puri. Indian delegation later walked out of the meeting as it was objecting to the near final draft of the meeting but failed to convince other members of its viewpoint.

Tariq Puri assured the Chairman of the Working Group Dr. Mark Wolf that it would continue to provide quality Basmati to the UK consumers and would co-operate in taking any further steps in this regard.