Russia removes ban on shipments from over 50 Belarusian agricultural enterprises - Deputy PM

ST. PETERSBURG. March 15 (Interfax) - Russia has canceled its restrictions on food shipments from 53 Belarusian companies, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Leonid Zayats said.

"Now everything is fine. Everything is working. Our products are going to the Russian market, and there are no more of these restrictions," Zayats told Interfax following a meeting with Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko on Tuesday evening.

The issue of lifting the restrictions was resolved after a dialogue with the Russian Ministry of Agriculture and Rosselkhoznadzor, the Deputy PM said.

As President Alexander Lukashenko stated at a meeting on December 16 last year, Russia maintains a ban on the supply of products from "about fifty" Belarusian enterprises. He stressed the importance of coordinating exports and imports with Russia in response to growing sanctions pressure from the West.

Later in December, Zayats, speaking in the Belarusian parliament, noted that at that time the export of products to Russia was completely or partially closed for 53 enterprises in the republic. Specifically, it was about 10 dairy, 29 meat enterprises, 6 poultry farms, and enterprises for the production of feed. In 99% of the cases, the reasons for the export restrictions were "subjective and far-fetched," the Deputy Prime Minister said at the time.