Russia, Egypt to hold talks on fruit imports Sept 26-27
MOSCOW. Sept 20 (Interfax) - Russia's Federal Veterinary and Phyto-Sanitary Oversight Service (Rosselkhoznadzor) and Egypt's Plant Quarantine Administration will hold negotiations in Moscow on September 26-27 concerning the Russian watchdog's decision to ban imports of Egyptian fruit and vegetable products as of September 22, Rosselkhoznadzor deputy head Yulia Shvabauskene told Interfax.
"We have received such a proposal from our Egyptian colleagues. A delegation at a high expert level is coming to resolve issues concerning the exclusion of dangerous products from the Russian market," she said.
Nonetheless, Rosselkhoznadzor's decision to impose the ban as of September 22 remains in force, she said.
"We'll see what set of measures they propose to eliminate the identified shortcomings. We will assess it," Shvabauskene said.
This work will be particularly pressing ahead of the season of active imports of fruit and vegetable products, particularly citrus fruit, from Egypt, she said.
Rosselkhoznadzor is imposing temporary restrictions on imports of fruit and vegetables from Egypt as of September 22 because it has regularly identified quarantine objects in them.
A source at Rosselkhoznadzor said that there are no plans to discuss issues related to Egypt's imposition of a zero tolerance policy on the common grains fungus ergot, which has affect exports of Russian wheat to Egypt, at the Moscow talks.
A number of food market experts have linked the Russian ban to Egypt's introduction of this policy. However, Rosselkhoznadzor spokesman Alexei Alekseyenko told Interfax earlier that there is no link between these two events, since the violations in shipments of Egyptian fruit and vegetable products were found earlier as well.