You're reading: Russia may ban EU potatoes, says Rosselkhoznadzor

Moscow - Russian food safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor, which had already planned to ban importation of seed potato from the EU effective April 1, 2013, may now expand that ban to include food potato. 

“We are considering the option of limiting the delivery to Russia of all food potato as well, since it bears the same burden in terms of hazard as seed potato: it can also serve as a vector for quarantined items and dangerous illnesses,” Rosselkhoznadzor chief Sergei Dankvert told Interfax.

The monitoring being carried out by Rosselkhoznadzor gives sufficient grounds for limiting deliveries. There have been numerous detections of hazardous substances, he said. The results of the monitoring will be presented on Tuesday at talks with Ladislav Miko, the deputy general director of the European Commission Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection (DG SANCO).

The items of most concern are golden and white eelworms. The former is sometimes encountered in Russia, but never the latter.

Dankvert did specify the date when the ban on food potato from the EU would be imposed. “Much depends on the results of tomorrow’s talks,” he said.

Russia is imposing a ban effective April 1 on seed potato and certain other seed material from the EU. Rosselkhoznadzor has required that the imports only come from growing areas that are free of quarantined items. But so far the EU has failed to present information on the zones to Russia.

However, Dankvert said, the ban may be postponed for one or two months.

Rosselkhoznadzor logged more than 400 detections of quarantined items in product from delivered from the EU in 2012.