Russia threatens to ban Indian rice imports

MOSCOW, Feb 27 (Reuters) Russia may ban imports of rice from India from May 1 if shipments are not accompanied by certificates stating which pesticides have been used to treat it, the animal and plant health watchdog said on Tuesday.

Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement that Russian inspectors had discovered Indian farmers did not supply processing plants with information on pesticides used during rice growing, which it said may present a danger to consumers' health.

India is one of the main suppliers of rice to Russia.

Moscow used to import 400,000-500,000 tonnes of rice per year intil it imposed a tariff of 70 euros (.19) per tonne in April 2005. Exports shrank to 300,000-350,000 tonnes after that, analysts have said.

At the beginning of December, Russia stopped all rice imports on health grounds but promised to restart them later under stricter control via a reduced number of ports.

Earlier this month the government set a seasonal import tariff of 120 euros from March 13 to May 31 and from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31 to protect domestic producers.

Russia harvested an all-time high rice crop of 685,000 tonnes in 2006, compared with 575,000 tonnes in 2005. Of this top rice grower Razgulay produced 375,000 tonnes, up from 133,000 tonnes in 2005.

REUTERS DKS BD1636