You're reading: Ukraine refuses to disclose horticultural data to Rosselkhoznadzor

Ukraine will not disclose its data about this year's horticultural products and areas for the cultivation of certain crops at the request of the Russian agriculture watchdog (Rosselkhoznadzor).

“We are not going to disclose this information since we have no obligation to do so. A lab test is enough to confirm the origin of a product,” Ukraine’s Minister of Agricultural Policy and Food Ihor Shvaika told reporters in Kyiv on Oct. 21.

Under war conditions, the relevant request from Rosselkhoznadzor is a way to obtain information about Ukraine’s strategic reserves of horticultural products, since the data requested include crop growing areas, yields, and so on, he said.

It was reported that on Oct. 22 Russia is introducing temporary restrictions on all controlled horticultural products coming in from and via Ukraine.

Earlier the Russian watchdog asked Ukraine’s State Veterinary and Biosecurity Service to provide, before Oct. 21, figures for Ukraine’s crop yields and areas for cultivation of certain crops for this year, and to provide other convincing guarantees of the Ukrainian origin of horticultural products supplied by Ukraine to Russia.

According to the Russian watchdog, the request was due to a sharp increase of horticultural products from Ukraine and the absence or deliberate removal of a marking from package, which, according to Rosselkhoznadzor, could mean a delivery via Ukraine of horticultural products from the European Union, which fell under the Russian sanctions.