Working Meeting between Alexey Alekseyenko and Chairman of Fisheries Council of Canada (FCC) Bruce Chapman

The meeting took place upon the initiative of the Canadian party. Bruce Chapman informed his Russian counterpart about the Council’s plans to start working over the joint project in Russia related to catching and processing of snow crab in the Barents Sea and about the talks between the FCC and Rosrybolovstvo devoted to the exchange of fish quotas in the North Atlantic.

Bruce Chapman expressed his interest in the inspections of Canadian fish processing plants by the Rosselkhoznadzor including sea vessels in the nearest future. He also informed the Rosselkhoznadzor that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) had already sent an official request for such inspections. Alexey Alekseyenko assured Bruce Chapman that the request would be considered immediately after receiving by the Rosselkhoznadzor. He also reminded that the terms of inspections and the list of inspectors are determined by the Rosselkhoznadzor in cooperation with the Veterinary Services of the CU member countries. The process of technical regulation can last up to two months. Besides it will be hard to find time for the inspections in a quite tough schedule for this year and to take into account the timetable of vessel movement subject to inspections so that a vessel could be located in one of the accessible ports at the time of the inspections.

Irrespective of the inspection terms the time left should be used for the maximum possible removal of the current deficiencies. The Rosselkhoznadzor experts analyze the data submitted by the CFIA in relation to individual establishments and will sent their comments so that necessary measures could be taken. Alexey Alekseyenko expressed his astonishment that during the recent meeting between Russian CVO Yevgeny Nepoklonov and Canadian CVO Harpreet Kochhar on the margins of the OIE General Session the Canadian party did not express any interest in the discussion of safety issues during bilateral trade in products including sea and fish products.

One more participant at the meeting, Sergey Gudkov, Executive Director of the Russian Fisheries Union, spoke about the plans to establish large salmon smolt production facilities in the Murmansk aquatic area. The parties agreed that a close cooperation between the Rosselkhoznadzor scientific centers and the Canadian veterinary services is necessary to ensure biological safety of such a project.

Alexey Alekseyenko also noted that the Rosselkhoznadzor was ready to ensure the safety of the Russian fish products exported to Canada in full compliance with the Canadian requirements. Besides he informed Bruce Chapman about the agreement of veterinary certificate for the Russian fish temporarily stored in Canadian cold storages.