India has shunned reports of Pakistani media outlets of airing and publishing false and incorrect facts regarding India’s ownership claims/ applications for Basmati having been dismissed by New Zealand and Australia.
Further, these reports also claimed that Pakistan has won Basmati rice ownership claims “against India”.
Official sources said these reports are a bunch of unverified and misrepresented facts propagated by ill-informed sources and that no registrations have been granted to Pakistan till date in either of these countries.
The Agricultural and Processed Food Exports Development Authority (APEDA), a body under the Government of India, has been actively engaged in the protection and prosecution of its Basmati name and logo certification trademark applications in these jurisdictions. In fact, APEDA already holds a logo mark registration in New Zealand for Basmati while Pakistan has no such registration.
The Pakistan reports also claimed that the European Commission (EC) is also expected to favor Pakistan soon in similar applications. Official sources further said, these claims are also once again baseless and false besides being misleading.
As per the Indian application, Basmati is special long grain aromatic rice grown and produced in a particular geographical region of the Indian sub-continent. It added that this region is a part of northern India, below the foothills of the Himalayas forming part of the Indo-Gangetic plain.
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