Russian watchdog to review all EU safety guarantees on animal products
MOSCOW. Sept 16 (Interfax) - The Federal Veterinary and Phyto-Sanitary Oversight Service intends to review all safety guarantees previously issued by the European Union veterinary service for shipments of animal products to Russia.
"We are warning our European colleagues ahead of time that we will review all guarantees that they previously gave when including their enterprises in lists of suppliers of animal products to Russia. As the spread of African swine fever in Europe has shown, these guarantees are not being fulfilled," the head of the Russian watchdog, Sergei Dankvert told Interfax.
He said there are currently 5,866 enterprises on lists of suppliers of meat, dairy and fish products to Russia, and 81% of them were included under guarantees from the EU veterinary service.
Dankvert recalled that there is currently a ban on imports of animal products from the EU into Russia.
"But after the restoration of trade the number of suppliers could decrease significantly. Only those who have been checked by Russian specialists will remain in the lists. So trade will resume, but not on the scale there was before," Dankvert said.
He said that, according to the latest information, 122 outbreaks of African swine fever have been reported in the EU, including 83 in wild boars and 39 in domestic pigs. There have been 94 reported in Latvia, 16 in Poland, ten in Lithuania and two in Estonia.
"We're preparing a letter to our European colleagues, in which we will inform them of our decision, as well as remind them of our warning and recommendation to expand the zone of restrictions on shipments of products due to ASF and their unwillingness to do this and statements that ASF will not spread," Dankvert said, adding that "due to economic considerations the quarantine zones were made minimal."
"So we are clearly seeing that those guarantees that were previously given by the EU veterinary service are not being fulfilled," he said.
He also said that his agency plans to introduce registration of suppliers of vegetables and fruit to Russia, like with animal products, and compile registers of them.
"It is necessary to introduce a procedure under which the exporter must answer for the quality and safety of the supplied product. I think that shipments should be made by companies that are registered as suppliers, perhaps even on a voluntary basis," Dankvert said.
