The government has initiated talks with officials from Saudi Arabia for relaxing the latters residual norms for import of basmati rice from India. Indias basmati exports to Saudi Arabia have taken a hit since June, when the West Asian country started following stringent maximum residual limit norms on the lines of European nations. In 2017-18 (Apr-Mar), India exported 792,480 tn of basmati to Saudi Arabia, against 809,343 tn in the preceding year. Indias total export of basmati in 2017-18 was 4.06 mln tn, up 1.8% from a year ago. Implementation of strict import norms for rice has added to pressure on the Indian industry, which is already battling with a halt in purchases from the European Union. Indias basmati exports to EU were suspended after the union reduced the permissible limit of tricyclazole residue in imported rice to 0.01 part per mln from 1 part per mln, effective Jan 1.