Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said he is convinced of the quality of Ukrainian cheese and believes that if Russia limits the access of Ukrainian cheese to its market, first and foremost, Russians will suffer from this decision.
"If our Russian colleagues restrict the access of Ukrainian goods to their market, first and foremost, they will suffer, because our cheese is of good quality and its price is lower. It means that Russian citizens will be forced to buy more expensive Polish cheese or face a rise in prices, as often happens when the domestic market closes," he told reporters in Khmelnytsky on Tuesday.
Azarov said that trade relations between Ukraine and Russia were strictly regulated by the agreements signed by the two parties, which "nobody is allowed" to violate.
"Of course, all of these issues will be raised at the first meeting between the leaders of Ukraine and Russia. And, of course, they will require solutions, and this solution will be found. This has always been the case," he said.
Azarov said that he deliberately arrived in Khmelnytsky, as it is Khmelnytsky Dairy Plant that supplies its products to the Russian market and "our Russian colleagues had no complaints" about these products.
"I tried some cheese in front of a camera, I familiarized myself with the technology, and I can tell my Russian partners and colleagues that they still need to make a lot of effort to ensure that Russian cheese factories produce cheese of such quality. Our products are of high quality, we meet all standards, and there should be no complaints about us," he added.
Azarov said that the complaints made by the Russian side concerned six Ukrainian plants that do not export their products to the Russian market.
As reported, the head of Rospotrebnadzor (the Federal Service on Customers’ Rights Protection and Human Well-Being Surveillance) and Russia’s chief sanitary officer, Gennady Onishchenko, told Interfax that Rospotrebnadzor, having analyzed the situation on the consumer market in the dairy product segment, concluded that "in the fourth quarter of 2011 there was a noticeable deterioration in the quality standards of the cheese supplied from Ukraine." In particular, there was an increased level of palm oil in the cheese supplied to Russia by a number of Ukrainian manufacturers. By Russian standards, in particular, those pertaining to milk and dairy products, such products containing high levels of palm oil should be called a "cheese product" and not "cheese."
"The products from the Pyriatyn cheese factory in Poltava region, the Velyky Burluk cheese factory in Kharkiv region and the Zvenyhorodka cheese factory in Cherkasy region are of particular concern," Onishchenko said.
He said that over 20 Ukrainian cheese factories supply products to the Russian market.
According to a ban imposed by the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance after checks conducted by Russian and Ukraine specialists in the middle of October 2010, only ten dairy companies have the right to supply their products to Russia.
