Russia forbids import of meat from Moldova

Chisinau, 22 October /MOLDPRES/ - Russia on 27 October will forbid the import of meat from Moldova, Head of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor)  Sergey Dankvert said today, MOLDPRES quoted a declaration made by the Russian chief inspector to ITAR-TASS.   

"Starting from 27 October, we will fully cease the import of meat from Moldova," the head of the veterinary service said. The Russian inspection has not placed its decision on its official site for the time being - a compulsory procedure, according to the institution's usages.  

Dankvert stressed that the recent inspecting of four meat-processing enterprises from Moldova had showed that they did not observe the requirements in terms of quality and the sanitary and veterinary requirements of the Customs Union. 

A last week visit to Moldova by a group of Rosselkhoznadzor experts showed that Moldova had no laboratory for checking the quality of goods. The group of Russian experts also found out cases of wholesale dealers purchasing meat from agriculture markets, which is subsequently exported, the Rosselkhoznadzor head said.  He added that falsehoods in certificates had been discovered. 

"We have not received any official document from Rosselkhoznadzor, confirming the ban of exports for the time being, we were informed about the statement of Dankvert by the Russian embassy in Moldova," the deputy director of the National Agency for Food Safety, Grigore Porcescu   said. "We do not know what the ground of the prohibition would be," the representative of the Agency also said. At the same time, he emphasised that  the exports of meat to the Russian market were insignificant. 

The ban comes just one day after they informed that two enterprises had been authorized to export meat on the Russian market. 

On 12-17 October, a group experts from Rosselkhoznadzor and its counterpart from Belarus inspected and monitored, jointly with local specialists, four farms and one slaughterhouse. The experts gave no comments at the end of the visit . The findings of the inspection were to be presented to the National Agency for Food Safety, after the final report was considered by the Federal Service.