FX.co ★ Russia bans import of vegetables and fruit from Ukraine

The Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Monitoring Service’s officials, guarding health of compatriots, eliminated the threat to the Russian population by blocking a suspicious delivery channel from Ukraine. Having carried out a number of serious tests, department officers studied the composition and harmful influence of the state of origin to crops in detail. Based on the results, the Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Monitoring Service “expressed deep concern in connection with supplies of unsafe vegetable production from Ukraine and reminded that they appealed to the State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service Ukraine with the request to give information on volumes of available produce and areas occupied for certain crops till October 21, 2014.” Now, suppliers need not only to provide a product quality certificate, but also to guarantee that imported products into Russia are of the Ukrainian origin. "This is due to the fact that sharp increases in supplies of agricultural produce from Ukraine, as well as the absence or deliberate removal of marking from its packing, indicates its non-Ukrainian origin. This can be explained by vegetable supplies freight from the European Union falling under retaliatory sanctions of Russia,” the Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Monitoring Service explains. In its statement, the department refers to violations of international trade rules as well as laws of the Customs Union and Russia, in particular the ban on deliveries of unmarked production of unknown origin. Furthermore, the situation is complicated by the fact that some “quarantine pests for Russia such as apple seedworms and Californian thrips” were revealed in the agricultural produce delivering from Ukraine.