Deadline for Norwegian pelagic exports only from Russia-approved plants postponed

The deadline for supplies of pelagic fish only from the Norwegian plants approved by Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Rosselkhoznadzor has been postponed from 15 November 2007 to 15 December 2007, Russia's veterinary head Sergey Dankvert told Norway's ambassador in Russia Oivind Nordsletten.

The talks between the high rank officials have been initiated by the Norwegian side. Sergey Dankvert has expressed his concern as regards safety of fish products imported to Russia. In particular, some consignments of herring delivered to Russia from Norway have been contaminated with bacteria.

At the same time, the sides have agreed that they are satisfied with the development of cooperation between the veterinary bodies of the both countries in the sphere of safety of fish products exported from Norway to Russia.

As a result of a recent Russian-Norwegian inspection of twelve Norwegian herring processing plants, seven plants have been approved for export of their pelagic fish to Russia. However, as the Russian delegation has checked only those companies located in the north of Norway, Mr. Nordsletten has asked Sergey Dankvert as head of Rosselkhoznadzor to speed up checks of Norwegian pelagic plants in other regions of the country.

Dankvert has agreed with the proposal and informed the Norwegian ambassador that, as an act of good will, Rosselkhoznadzor has decided to postpone introduction of the restriction of pelagic fish shipments only from plants approved by the Russian vets from 15 November 2007 to 15 December 2007.

Besides, the sides have agreed to exchange specialists in the sphere of fish safety evaluation in order to unify the laboratory methods of defining the key parameters of the products safety and quality.