Fonterra dairy products unlikely to return to Russia soon
MOSCOW. Aug 5 (Interfax) - The contaminated product scare at New Zealand dairy company Fonterra has undermined confidence in that country's veterinary service and this company's products will not return to the Russian market any time soon, Russia's food safety watchdog said.
"The fact that dangerous products made its way onto the market and was certified undermines confidence in the veterinary service of New Zealand. It should not have certified these products," Federal Veterinary and Phyto-Sanitary Oversight Service head Sergei Dankvert told Interfax.
"In light of this, we distrust the guarantees that New Zealand's veterinary service gave when Fonterra enterprises were included in the list of suppliers to Russia and Customs Union countries. After Russia joined the WTO, they aggressively expanded the list of suppliers under their guarantees, including everyone en masse," Dankvert said.
Fonterra, New Zealand's biggest producer and exporter of milk and dairy products, announced Saturday that some of its products might contain bacteria that can cause botulism.
The list of suppliers of dairy products from New Zealand now includes 83 enterprises, of which 71 are Fonterra companies.
"Our Belarusian colleagues rightly reproached us that when the lists of suppliers from Belarus were compiled we inspected their enterprises dozens of time, while New Zealand suppliers, it turns out, have privileges, as by the way do Australian and American ones, included in lists under guarantees from the veterinary services of their countries, without Russian inspections. Fairness must be restored. Trust is good, but if you undermine this trust yourself, then you must take responsibility for the consequences," Dankvert said.
He said his agency intends to sort out the guarantees that were provided by the New Zealand veterinary service. "We're putting their products on the stop list and will ask our New Zealand colleagues for information about when the enterprises included in the list of suppliers were inspected, how the standards and requirements of the Customs Union were taken into account, how compliance with these standards was monitored, and so on. We will analyse this information with our colleagues in the Customs Union and make a decision on inspections of New Zealand suppliers," Dankvert said.
However, this year's schedule for inspections is already full, the "inspection lists are closed," he said. "So now only next year," Dankvert added.
