RIGA - Baltic beef exports to Russia may yet be stopped at the border again, as Moscow has not ruled out that it may slap another ban on the products come September.
Last week it was reported that the Russian Agriculture Ministry promised to curb imports of beef from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, as well as the seven other new member states to the EU (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Cyprus and Malta) unless they meet requirements set by the Russian veterinary service.
The threat came just three weeks after Russia had slapped a ban on beef, poultry, fish and dairy products from the Baltics due to the lack of common EU certification for these products. The ban caused such an uproar that EU Commission President Romano Prodi was forced to intervene and call Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.
However, the two men only reached a verbal agreement to come up with a more specific solution by the end of September.
Russia has apparently decided to tackle the issue on a case-by-case basis. According to the government decision, only companies authorized to sell their products in the EU without restrictions will be allowed to export to Russia.
To facilitate this, Russia's veterinary service will begin inspecting each and every food exporter from the 10 new member states, Latvian Food and Veterinary Service head Vinets Veldre announced on June 24. Latvia has submitted the list of companies that export their products to Russia and has invited Russian inspectors to examine them, he said.
So far 72 Latvian companies from various industries that are exporting their products to Russia have applied for the inspection. A specific inspection plan will be worked out soon, Veldre added.
Russian Veterinary Authority chief Sergei Dankvert said before the talks with his counterparts from the 10 new EU members that Russia possibly would not be able to examine all companies which have applied for import permits by Sept. 1, and that those businesses still not inspected by that date would be unable to export their products to Russia.
Veldre was optimistic, saying the Russian officials should be able to complete their inspection of Latvia's producers on time.
Russian inspectors will examine all potential exporters for compliance with Russian veterinary and sanitary requirements before listing them as approved importers.
