Russia has not approved a list of 140 Moldovan fruit and vegetable exporters that the Moldovan Agriculture and Food Industry Ministry submitted to Russian food safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor last week.
Russia has claims against a number of companies on the list, the deputy head of the Moldovan ministry, Vasily Bumakov, told Interfax on Wednesday.
He declined to name them.
"We are currently negotiating with Rosselkhoznadzor for Russia to approve all 140 exporting firms on our list," he said.
The ministry has requested additional information from Russian profile ministries and agencies concerning the companies with violations.
Moldova wants to know how many violations each company had and how serious they were, Bumakov said.
"We know that over the course of recent years just nine Moldovan firms received warnings from Russia concerning the quality of export produce, and all of those problems were resolved long ago. We hope to reach an agreement with Russia so that Moldovan fruit and vegetable exporters have access to the Russian market," he said.
Under the memorandum signed by Moldova and Russia, an exporter may not have more than two violations in a month.
Russia halted fruit and vegetable imports from 100 Moldovan exporters several weeks ago claiming that the produce did not meet Russian quality standards.
Moldova exports about 80% of the fruit and vegetables it produces to Russia.
