Laimute Grybauskaite, director of the Lithuanian Association of Food Importers, said small importers could not afford to conform with the regulations.
"It costs a lot of money to find out exactly who produced this or that," she said.
The regulations are part of Lithuania's efforts to harmonize its laws with the European Union in time to join in 2004.
Passed in O`ct. 1999, the law requiring importers to list all chemicals used for producing and preserving goods is due to be introduced gradually over the next two years.
As of Nov. 10 apples, pears, plums, cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbages, carrots, onions and potatoes fall under the new regulations, a change that has small importers up in arms.
While large companies have the resources to track every product from farmer to consumer and test them for chemical traces, smaller importers don't have such capabilities, Grybauskaite said.
Many small importers now face bankruptcy as a result of mandatory tracking and testing.
"These tests take six days, and in this time the fruits and vegetables sit in a warehouse where they go bad - and the importer pays for it," Grybauskaite said.
But Kazimieras Lukauskas, director of the Lithuanian State Food and Veterinary Service, said the new regulations were becoming the standard for Europe.
"Right now all EU countries have their own laws regarding vegetables and fruit, but uniform laws concerning meat, fish and milk," he said. "In mid-February that will change and all EU countries will have harmonized laws. We are doing the same thing in Lithuania by following their example."
Considering agriculture is a more vital part of the Lithuanian economy than in Latvia or Estonia, the industry has always been highly protected by government and slow to deregulate.
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