Russian vet officers told to squeeze vessel inspection within 3-hour limit
Recently the heads of Territory Administrations of Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Rosselkhoznadzor have got the directive with the explanation of the new procedure of clearance of fishing vessels as well as of export/import of catches of aquatic biological resources and processed products to/from fish ports of Russian Federation.
The official letters from Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Rosselkhoznadzor were circulated to the regional vet bodies. In particular, the letter says that in accordance with the order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated from 19 March 2008 No. 184 "About the procedure of fishing vessels entry/exit clearance to/from Russian fish ports..." in Russian fish ports the procedure of fishing vessels clearance and import of products onto the territory of the Russian Federation shall be carried out on the basis on a notification basis and random testing.
During entry into the Russian Federation of the products caught in the Russian EEZ and on the continental shelf and transshipped on the principles of "vessel-truck" or "vessel-freight car" for transport on the Russian territory an inspector of Rosselkhoznadzor shall carry our selective inspection of the consignments in order to identify the incoming products, inspection of transport vehicles supplied for loading, checking of the compliance of the temperature regimes with the vet certificate of the form 6.2.
The veterinary documents for products landed in cold stores located in the customs control zone of Russian ports should not be processed until the products' further shipment to the consignee. In case of transshipment in the form of "from board to board" without landing, for further shipment by sea to other regions of Russian Federation an official of the Russian vet body shall, directly on the transport vessel, make the certificate of the form 6.2 for the entire product consignment.
In all these cases after application of the owner the products shall be shipped to concrete coldstore or processing plants under control of territorial vet bodies in order to store without right to sell before the results of the laboratory tests are received.
It is emphasized that the time of all the procedures of inspection of the vessel must not exceed 3 hours from the moment of vessel mooring to a berth or anchorage in a sea port to the beginning of cargo discharge operations.