You're reading: Russia ready to inspect Ukrainian cheese producers to resume imports

Moscow, March 3 (Interfax) - Russia has completed examining documents of a number of Ukrainian factories exporting cheese products to Russia and notified Ukraine of its willingness to inspect compliance of their products with Russian quality standards on the spot, Gennady Onishchenko, Russia's chief public health official and head of the consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, told Interfax on Saturday.

Russia notified Ukraine through diplomatic channels on Thursday of its willingness to send its inspectors to that country to inspect major cheese producing factories in the Poltava region, Onishchenko said.

"And we confirmed through diplomatic channels on Friday that we are ready to come and inspect two more Ukrainian enterprises on the spot," he said.

Such an inspection calls for agreeing upon certain procedures, Onishchenko said. "I think we can travel not sooner than in a week," he said.

"This does not yet mean that Ukrainian cheese products are again admitted to the Russian market, but it is an important phase on the way of solving the situation that has taken place in connection with the ban on its imports to Russia," Onishchenko said.

It was reported earlier that Russia had suspended imports of cheese produced by several Ukrainian factories on February 7, claiming that this cheese did not comply with Russian quality standards.