October 8 2007, 15:22

October 16th Russia and EU to continue negotiating the supplies of plant products from Poland

On the 16th of October 2007 in Moscow Russia and EU will continue discussing the problems related to the supplies of plant products from Poland through Lithuania and other countries, Sergey Dankvert, the Chief of Russian Agricultural Inspection, informed Interfax. The previous round of negotiations took place in the end of the past week in Brussels. According to its results, no official documents have been signed. S. Dankvert says, European colleagues took a break in order to specify the powers of EU specialists and the certain European countries in the sphere of the control of pesticide utilization. "But, until dangerous products keep coming from Poland, we have made the decision to 100% monitor Lithuanian firms which supply Polish tomato, potato, onion, apple, cabbage and other plant products to Russia", the Chief of the Inspection said. "After the analysis, quality products will obtain permits, and dangerous products will come back to the suppliers". In this regard Mr. Dankvert pointed out that Russian firms - purchasers of products in Poland and Lithuanian suppliers should know that the shipping process will somewhat linger because they will have to wait till the analysis results are available on border. According to the data of Russian Agricultural Inspection, the sample inspection during 8 months of 2007 defined 47 shipments (840 tons) of Polish products with the increased content of dangerous substances. The residual quantity of pesticides, nitrates, nitrites, and other dangerous substances significantly exceeded the acceptance rate.