October 16 comes into force a ban on the import into Russia from Belarus of tomatoes grown in Bangladesh, Guinea, Djibouti, Zambia, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, and Tanzania.

In the message of Rosselkhoznadzor, the ban is due to the inability to reliably determine the place of origin of vegetables and the need to "prevent the importation into the territory of Russia of banned products."

Suspicion Department called evidence that the deliveries of Belarusian tomatoes to Russia "significantly increased" amid rising import Minsk tomatoes from countries where these vegetables to Russia not to deliver, and simultaneous increase in supply through Belarus tomatoes from Asia and Africa.

In this regard, Rosselkhoznadzor has decided to ban from 16 October 2017 deliveries to Russia of tomatoes from these countries of Africa and Asia, accompanied by the Belarusian re-export phytosanitary certificates.

"The import of the mentioned products on the territory of the Russian Federation is permitted only through the checkpoints on the Russian section of the Eurasian economic Union, accompanied by the original phytosanitary certificates of Guinea, Yemen, Tanzania, Lebanon, Sudan, Syria, Djibouti, Bangladesh, Zambia", — stated in the message Rosselkhoznadzor.

The ban on the import into Russia of some agricultural products, including vegetables, was introduced in EU countries, USA, Canada, Australia and Norway in August 2014. Later in blacklist added five more countries — Albania, Montenegro, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Ukraine. In July 2017 the validity of the embargo was extended to 31 December 2018.

In addition, Russia is still prohibited the import of tomatoes from Turkey: from 1 January 2016, the Russian side was limited supply of several kinds of agricultural products from this country that was a response to the attack of the Turkish Russian fighter bomber su-24 shot down near the Syrian-Turkish border. After the improvement of relations between the countries most bans were lifted, but the import of Turkish tomatoes to Russia is still prohibited.

In early October, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said that the decision on the admission to the Russian market of tomatoes from Turkey will be made no earlier than the beginning of 2018.

Photo: kartaslov.ru