The Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) banned imports of fish and fish products from 14 Norwegian enterprises.
A statement by Rosselkhoznadzor said that it was due to the “unjustifiable refusal by the Norwegian side to allow inspectors to check fishing enterprises.”
As was reported earlier by the head of the agency, Sergei Dankvert, Russian specialists were supposed to fly out to Norway on Sunday. Some 14 companies were set to be checked, the number and length of inspections had been agree upon beforehand. However on Friday evening Rosselkhoznadzor received a letter from the Norwegian embassy, which stated that the competent Norwegian bodies decided that the inspections in Norway are inadvisable.
Additionally, in letter received from the Norwegian veterinary agency, the head of which said that: “At the moment there is no mutual understanding on coordinated programs of inspections.”
“The problem is that Norway doesn’t want us to inspect their large fish exporters. Among them there are many large producers which send fish exports to Belarus, where it is then processed, and then goes on to Russia. These companies wanted to hide from Russian inspectors,” Dankvert said.
Exports of fish from Norway to Russia have been banned from Aug. 7, 2014, in connection with the food embargo. “If we find out that deliveries continue, we will destroy them, since they will be under the counter-sanctions,” Dankvert said.
Companies that have products banned under the food embargo will not be able to return to the Russian market once the embargo is lifted, since starting on Aug. 24 the decision by Rosselkhoznadzor will already come into effect.
