May 1, 2006

 

India discovers high levels of pesticides in Australian wheat

 

 

India halted unloading operations of its first consignment of Australian wheat in six years after laboratory tests confirmed the presence of a dangerously high level of pesticides on Sunday (April 30).

 

About 51,000 tonnes of wheat had arrived at the Chennai port on Tuesday (Apr 25) as the first consignment of 500,000 tonnes India ordered to buffer stocks.

 

The wheat was purchased from Australian exporter AWB Ltd.

 

According to preliminary laboratory findings on the samples drawn from the cargo, the wheat was unfit for human consumption as the pesticide level was 0.25 ppm, way over the permissible level of 0.05 ppm.

 

Following this, more samples were drawn and sent for testing at the Central Food Technological Research Institute. Should the test results confirm the findings of the Chennai lab, the entire shipment would be sent back to Australia, officials said.

 

The present cargo could cause great harm as the wheat was meant for distribution under the PDS (public distribution system), for the poor, said Dr Ajay Parida, a famed researcher and programme director for biotechnology at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai.

 

The contamination on the first consignment puts the second consignment scheduled for May 17 in jeopardy. The shipments were supposed to provide south Indian ports of Tuticorin, Kochi, New Mangalore and Vishakapatnam shipments of 100,000 tonnes each by the end of May.

 

India recently planned to import three million tonnes of wheat, on top of the 500,000 tonnes already contracted from Australia.

 

A delegation from Australian exporter AWB Ltd is on its way to India Monday (May 1), Peter McBride, an AWB spokesman, said. The delegation would include AWB's head of grain technology and quality assurance.

 

The cargo was tested before it left Australia and fell within international Codex standards, McBride said.

 

India conducted their own tests, with McBride noting every nation has different levels within international Codex standards.

 

McBride said the company is taking this matter seriously and a meeting is urgently needed to look at India's test results and address the issue.

 

AWB does not believe more than one or two cargo hold would be contaminated and said it is very unlikely the whole shipment was contaminated.