Food import ban: After a week’s break, Russia’s state-run health watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor has resumed its policy of destroying food imports which it claims originate in countries that President Putin proscribed early last month.
“On September 10, 675 tons of contraband plant food [ie vegetable] products were detained, of which 615 tons were destroyed,” it confirmed in a statement posted on its website this week. “317 tons of food products of animal origin were also detained and 61 tons were destroyed.”
In retaliation for the sanctions imposed on Russia following its annexation of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin last year signed a decree banning food imports from most of the EU, and last month both extended the embargo for another year and signed a decree ordering the destruction of banned imports of agricultural products to Russia. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev subsequently ordered Albania, Montenegro, Iceland and Liechtenstein to be added to the list of countries subject to the embargo.
Since the initial ban was imposed in 2014, Russian custom officials have frequently accused exporters from countries not covered by the ban – including fellow EEU member states Kazakhstan and Belarus – of trying to disguise the provenance of goods they are trying to import into Russia.
Destruction of goods covered by food import ban resumes
Source: Rosbalt