Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Mid December May See Russia Raising the Ban on Polish Meat and Produce
As PAP informs, Russia will consider the possibility to raise the ban on fruit, vegetable and other plant products, as well as meat imported from Poland. The requirement will be that Poland bring phytosanitary and veterinary certificates in line with the Russian requirements, this according to Sergey Dankvert, the Chief of Russian Phytosanitary Service. This announcement came after the meeting of European Commission Representative held on Tuesday, November 29, 2005. This problem is expected to be discussed at the meeting of phytosanitary and veterinary services of Russia and Poland, preliminarily planned to be held in Moscow on the 14th of December 2005.
In mid November Russia made the decision to ban plant and meat products' imported from Poland because of "the constant violations of Russian phytosanitary and veterinary requirements". Fruit and vegetable producers and vendors were expected to suffer the most, as Russian market is their main sales market.
As of today, December 1, intensive fruit export from Poland to Russia usually begins, as decreased import taxes on many produce types are scheduled to effective on this day. However, it seems this year Polish firms will have to search for other market opportunities or hope for the ban to be lifted. Without a doubt, Dutch, Turkish and some Ukrainian companies will take an advantage of the banned supplies of Polish produce and expand their presence in Russian market and Russian consumers will have to shell out the money.