July 1 2003, 16:46

Russia revealed breeches in exports of meat from Ukraine and Belarus

Russian veterinary service has warned Ukraine and Belarus about unacceptability of breeches in trade of meet and some other products - subject to veterinary control.

According to Russia's First Deputy Minister of Agriculture Sergey Dankvert, Russian veterinary service has on these days detained at the frontier a 20,000 tonne shipment of chopped meat (mince) from Ukraine, the technology of production of which "aroused some questions". There have also been detained two trucks with Ukrainian meat. The stamps on the documents, accompanying the shipment, were not in accordance with the formants, approved by the veterinary services of the two countries. Investigation is currently in progress on these cases, Dankvert said.

He said Russian veterinary service suggested their Ukrainian colleagues making joint checks of meat processing enterprises, in order to assure compliance to the mutual requirements and to guarantee safety of the supplied products.

Speaking about the claims to Belarusian party, Dankvert said that in trade with this country there had been revealed cases of re-export. Thus, a shipment of fish was detained at the frontier, which had been declared as Belarusian. However, as was shown by the results of the check, the fish was Norwegian and Canadian.

A similar situation was revealed in exports of pork. "Documents for one of the shipments stated Belarus as the country of origin. However, the meat had Polish brands on it", Dankvert said.

"We warned the colleagues that we would have to restrict the trade if the breeches did not stop and the veterinarians did not perform their duties properly", he noted.