The Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) has said it will ban the import of tomatoes and apples from Azerbaijan to Russia from December 10 it has banned the import of tomatoes and apples from Azerbaijan to Russia, RIA Novosti reports.
The Service recalls that they had repeatedly found harmful organisms in imported products and informed the Food Security Agency of Azerbaijan about this.
In particular, only since October 22, the service specialists have recorded 17 cases of “objects quarantined for the Eurasian Economic Union – the South American tomato moth and the oriental fruit moth.”
“In this regard, in order to preserve phytosanitary well-being, to prevent the import and spread of these pests on the territory of the Russian Federation, the Rosselkhoznadzor is forced to prohibit the import of tomatoes and apples of Azerbaijani origin into Russia from December 10, 2020,” the service concluded.
Azerbaijan is a fairly large supplier of plant products to Russia. According to the Federal Customs Service, imports of fresh and chilled tomatoes in 2019 amounted to 172,359 thousand tons (30.9% of the total import of these products).
Source: Public Radio of Armenia