Having fought three wars since independence, Pakistan and India are engaged in an increasingly bitter feud over the right to basmati rice.
The rice row has escalated with Pakistan hiring international lawyers to contest an Indian claim that only it should be allowed to supply basmati to the European Union (EU).
Delhi argues it has unique cultural ties to basmati rice and that to qualify to use the term it must be grown exclusively in specific areas of India.
The name “basmati” originally derived from two Sanskrit words, vas meaning aroma and mati meaning ingrained, the Indian EU application states, noting that the first recorded reference to basmati rice appeared in a Punjabi love poem called Heer Ranjha by Waris Shah in 1766.
India’s application