Russia banned re-export of plant products from Bulgaria

Russia banned re-export of plant products from Bulgaria after a decree from the Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Control to the government. The Russian Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Control added that take this step because of imports from Bulgaria in Russia plant production, accompanied by forged phytosanitary certificates from third countries. On Thursday, Russian Service reported that it returned to Bulgaria three batches of apples with a total weight of 63.5 tons, after an attempt was made they can be imported into Russia with forged certificates of Morocco, which was confirmed by the authorities in the Arab country.

The Deputy Chairman of Rosselkhoznadzor Julia Shvabauskene, who requested urgent consultations with Bulgarian colleagues for the accuracy of the certificates. According to her, there have been other cases where from Bulgaria have been exported to Russia apples produced in Europe, which documents were presented by Chinese and Brazilian.

Due to increased frequency of such cases, Russia is considering to ban re-export of plant production of all European Union countries. In August last year, Russia imposed a one-year embargo on the import of a number of food products from the EU and the US as a reciprocal measure imposed sanctions against Moscow because of the crisis in Ukraine.