You're reading: Russia plans to ban meat, dairy products from 3 parts of Germany

Moscow - Russia plans to ban the import of finished meat and dairy products from three parts of Germany, head of the Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Oversight Service (Rosselkhoznadzor) Sergei Dankvert told Interfax.

“The results of inspections conducted by our specialists at meat and dairy enterprises in Bavaria, Lower Saxony, and North Rhine-Westphalia compel us to introduce restrictions on the delivery of products from those regions,” Dankvert said, adding that a ban could take effect on February 11.

During the inspections, it was established that the enterprises involved were not meeting Russian and Customs Union veterinary-sanitary requirements and were not following Customs Union rules for milk and dairy products, Dankvert said.

“The main thing, the issue is the absence at them of so-called traceability of product, which makes it possible to follow the sources of raw material from which finished product is made,” he said. The lack of such a system allows reprocessing enterprises to use raw material from enterprises not certified to ship product to Russia, he said.

Measures Rosselkhoznadzor has taken and requirements are analogous to those the European Union has announced in relation to product shipments from Russia. “Finished product has to be made from raw material provided solely from Russian enterprises certified to export to the EU,” Dankvert said.