The Hindu : Front Page : Australian wheat in the dock

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 30, 2006

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Front Page

Australian wheat in the dock

N. Ravi Kumar and S. Vijay Kumar

Officials checking the consignment of wheat at Chennai Port on Tuesday. — Photo : Bijoy Ghosh

CHENNAI: Even before the half-a-lakh tonne cargo of Australian wheat could be unloaded at the Chennai port, a controversy has rocked the first consignment of import.

Laboratory tests on the samples drawn from the cargo on Tuesday revealed more than the permissible pesticide content.

According to sources, the results showed that the wheat was unfit for consumption as the pesticide content was 0.25 per cent, hundred times over the permissible limit of 0.02 per cent.

Confirming the information available with The Hindu , a senior official of Chennai Port Trust says following the findings, the Port Health Officer on Saturday has drawn samples from all the hatches (compartments) of M.V. Furness Australia that shipped the cargo from Adelaide.

The samples would be sent to the Central Food Technological Research Institute in Mysore.

A highly placed official of the Chennai Customs adds that in the event of the tests also coming up with similar findings, there will be little option but to send the cargo back.

He said the Customs would not clear the cargo until the test reports cleared the wheat.

The nearly 51,000 tonnes of foodgrain was the first consignment of the five lakh tonnes of Australian duty-free wheat that India proposes to import.

The first load is to be distributed under the public distribution system in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

On behalf of the FCI, the State Trading Corporation purchased the wheat from Australia's monopoly wheat marketing body, AWB Limited, at $178.75 a tonne.

The FCI and the regional plant quarantine station also drew samples when the cargo arrived.

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