Russia to resume cheese imports from Ukraine - minister
KYIV. April 3 (Interfax) - Russia will lift its restrictions on imports of hard and semi-hard cheese from Ukraine when the latter eliminates the reasons for grievances expressed by Russia after inspecting Ukrainian dairy-producing facilities, Ukrainian Economic Development and Trade Minister Petro Poroshenko said on Tuesday.
Poroshenko made the announcement at a briefing after talks in Kyiv on Tuesday with Russia's chief sanitary inspector, Gennady Onishchenko.
Poroshenko was referring to inspections by officials from Onishchenko's agency, the Federal Surveillance Service for Consumer Rights and Human Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor), who arrived in Ukraine on Monday.
Russia banned imports of cheese produced by some Ukrainian firms on February 7 allegedly for sanitary reasons.
"Altogether, sales of 32 tonnes of cheese have been suspended on the territory of the Russian Federation," Onishchenko told Interfax last month. Another 120 tonnes was stopped on the border and not allowed into Russia, he said.
On February 27, Onishchenko told Interfax that Ukraine had more than halved its cheese exports to Russia because of Russian restrictions.
However, on March 3, he said Russian experts had finished checking the documents of Ukrainian cheese exporters. Rospotrebnadzor then offered to inspect Ukrainian cheese-manufacturing facilities on the spot.