Talks between Deputy Head of Rosselkhoznadzor Yulia Shvabauskene and Head of Central Administration of Plant Quarantine Ibrahim Ahmed Imbabi
The talks initiated by the Egyptian party were held in the mode of the teleconference, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to Rosselkhoznadzor.
Opening the talks the Egyptian party noted that export of plant products from Egypt to Russia is worth about one billion US dollars per year. Egypt is interested in expansion of its presence in the Russian food market and occupying the market niche previously occupied by Turkey with its plant products. Yulia Shvabuskene paid special attention to the Russia’s intention to develop trade and economic relations, including mutual supplies of food plant products. Besides, the main task in this context is assurance of phytosanitary safety of such products.
Rosselkhoznadzor is concerned about the fact that with a sharp increase in export of such products as tomatoes, carrots, greens and peppers from Egypt to Russia the problems with phytosanitary conditions of shipments occurred. Only in March, current year five detections of quarantine pests in Egyptian plant products were registered. According to Yulia Shvabauskene there were no such problems before the increase in export volume; in 2015 no detections of quarantine pests in Egyptian tomatoes, greens and peppers were registered.
In order to ensure safety of products imported from Egypt they are subjected to random laboratory checks lasting not more than 72 hours. Within the two months of the current year the volume of imported from Egypt vegetables was higher than the whole volume of the last year. This put an additional burden on the laboratories and Rosselkhoznadzor Territorial Administrations. The responsibility of the specialists from the Egyptian Central Administration of Plant Quarantine also increased. Due to attempts of illegal export of Turkish plant products under the guise of falsified and faked accompanying documents to Russia the certificates confirming the origin and compliance of the shipment with the importing country requirements had to be promptly checked for their authenticity.
The Rosselkhoznadzor is also seriously concerned about the fact that in products accompanied with Egyptian phytosanitary certificates, quarantine pests, not specific for Egypt, are detected. The Russian watchdog is especially worried about the detection of tomato leafminer (Tuta absoluta) in tomatoes imported with Egyptian phytosanitary certificates. In this context the Rosselkhoznadzor requests the Egypt’s Central Administration of Plant Quarantine to ensure urgent authenticity check of phytosanitary certificates accompanying non-complying plant products.
The representative of the Egyptian Embassy present at the talks was requested to provide the Rosselkhoznadzor with the information concerning the volumes of produced and exported plant food products as well as logistic peculiarities of such product export to Russia.