June 10, 2004

 

 

Pakistan Bans Australian Wheat

 

A Pakistan ban on Australian wheat had nothing to do with quarantine concerns that would be internationally accepted, Australia¡¯s Trade Minister Mark Vaile says.

 

Mr Vaile said Australia would continue to discuss the issue with Pakistan.

 

It follows claims by Pakistani scientists earlier this year that 150,000 tonnes of West Australian wheat, worth almost $35 million, were contaminated by the fungus karnal bunt.

 

The fungus gives off a fishy smell which makes the wheat unfit for human consumption.

 

Pakistan refused to take the wheat which was eventually sold to countries in the Middle East and South-East Asia.

 

Tests this week by a British organisation cleared the wheat of karnal bunt, while more than 100 tests in Australia in recent months had yet to find any sign of the disease.

 

Mr Vaile said quarantine issues were not behind Pakistan's decision to stop AWB's shipments.

 

"Regardless of what the background of the decision in Pakistan was, and it certainly wasn't on a quarantine basis that could be accepted internationally, we need the rest of the world to know and particularly our customers to know that those shipments did not have karnal bunt and that is not a disease that exists in Australia," he told reporters via phone.

 

"We have and we will continue to make it well known to Pakistan that we have had those shipments of wheat tested by internationally respected third country testing agencies, and it is cleared that completely."

 

Mr Vaile said there had been no repercussions from Pakistan's decision on AWB's trade.