October 29, 2008

Russia's agriculture ministry has agreed to delay the import ban imposed on 20 Belarusian meatpacking, dairy and poultry companies to a later date.

Rosselkhoznadzor had intended to remove the 20 companies, starting from November 1, from the list of allowed Belarusian exporters due to sanitary issues. 

However, the ministry had agreed to move the ban introduction date to December 1 as a result of talks held between Russian Minister Aleksei Gordeyev and his Belarusian counterpart, Syamyon Shapira, on Tuesday.

Gordeyev has agreed to monitor the situation once more, while Shapira pledged that all meatpacking, poultry and dairy plants exporting products to Russia would be modernised to meet Russia's standards.

The ministers have also agreed to hold another meeting in early December to look at efforts at increasing integration between the Belarusian and Russian agriculture markets.