No official consumer rights watchdog notification on Roshen yet - Ukraine
KYIV. Aug 7 (Interfax) - Ukraine's state inspection service for consumer rights protection has yet to receive any official notification regarding claims by Russia's Federal Service for Health and Consumer Rights (Rospotrebnadzor) against Roshen confectionery product imported into Russia, claims that have prompted an import ban on the corporation's products.
"Today we have the same information that you do. We have received no official notifications about the ban. There is an announcement on the [Rospotrebnadzor] website, but it seems to me a document with legal force should arrive," the inspection services chief Serhiy Orekhov said during an August 7 briefing in Kyiv.
In the first quarter of this year, he said, the service looked into a number of Ukrainian confectionery plants, including Roshen's. "We had no claims against them," he said.
Ukraine's Economic Development and Trade Ministry said that the instances of non-compliance with Russian law identified by Rospotrebnadzor were not dangerous enough to warrant a ban.
"In our view, the Ukrainian products ought to have access to the Russian market, since, as far as we have seen those potential or hypothetical shortcomings that have been identified are not so dangerous that [Roshen] products should be completely shut out of the market," the ministry said in a statement, citing First Deputy Minister Anatoly Maksyut.
A mechanism ought to be created that would make it possible to avoid such situations in future, he said, adding this might involve creation of a special certification laboratory in order to check products bound for export.
Roshen is already feeling the effects of the ban, Maksyut said.
Ukraine plans to officially take up the matter with Russia soon.
"We expect that the talks will begin late this week or early next week," he said.