New Delhi, May 15: Russia has banned Indian rice imports from June after detecting a particular kind of pesticide in samples.

The government has taken up the matter with Russian authorities, junior commerce minister Jairam Ramesh told Parliament today. Russia is one of the largest consumers of rice from India.

The Russian agency on veterinary and phytosanitary surveillance issued a note in April announcing the suspension of rice imports from Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, the US and India after the alleged detection of pesticides.

The particular pesticide contained in the Indian sample was dimethoate.

India exports about 4 million tonnes of non-basmati rice, the variety that Russia imports. Annual basmati rice exports go up to 1.1 million tonnes. Together, rice exports fetch India about Rs 7,000 crore in foreign exchange.

The government is worried other countries that import non-basmati rice may follow suit. Officials said the only long-term solution was to market organic rice.

S. Gopinath, managing director of Aduraswami Modern Rice Mill, said: “The only way to avoid such problems in future is to stop using chemical fertilisers and pesticides. We need to go the organic way in the near future if we want to continue uninterrupted our export of our food grain.”