July 11, 2013

 

Russia may ban meat imports from Greece

 

 

Following inspections of several facilities which revealed gross violations of veterinary rules, Russian veterinary watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor has warned that it may prohibit meat imports from Greece.

 

Rosselkhoznadzor spokesperson Alexei Alekseyenko said that some companies in Greece were found to be selling meat and other food products to Russian importers from companies and even countries that are banned from exporting to Russia.

 

"During the inspections we found several violations, and the most unacceptable for us was that they were supplying to Russia products from other companies that had not been approved for delivery to the Customs Union. These products often did not even have a Greek origin, they were imported from other countries."

 

Rosselkhoznadzor said it was considering a ban on meat from Greek suppliers that are approved for export to Russia under the guarantee of Greece's veterinary services, because it no longer trusted the Greek authorities to monitor the situation.

 

This would mean an almost total ban on Greek meat exports to Russia, with 90% of suppliers approved under guarantees by Greece's veterinary services and only 10% approved by Rosselkhoznadzor inspectors.

 

"Since the violations are systematic, we intend to engage in dialogue with the veterinary service of Greece – we want to find out how they are going to solve the problem. The most likely result will be a ban on the supply meat from Greece into the Russian Federation," said Alekseyenko.

 

However, head of Rosselkhoznadzor Sergey Dankvert suggested that Russia would offer Greece the opportunity to impose a voluntary export ban, which would make resuming exports to Russia much easier.

 

"We will send a letter to the Greek veterinary service, proposing that it suspends exports of products from companies that are included on the list of exporters approved under their guarantees. If they do not do that, we will introduce the restrictions ourselves," he said.

 

Dankvert also noticed that the violations of Russian import bans uncovered in Greece had long been used by other European countries.

 

"We have already found the same practice in Lithuania, the Netherlands, Germany and other countries," said Dankvert. "In fact, European countries have established a system of bypassing our prohibition on the supply of potentially dangerous meat and other raw materials. It arrives in Russia in the form of finished products, with no indication of the source of raw materials used."

 

Dankvert said Rosselkhoznadzor would insist on immediate talks with Greek colleagues on this issue.