Brussels, 21/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - Russia is planning to apply, as of 1 June (and no longer from 1 April as previously announced), a ban on imports of seed potatoes from the EU for health reasons that are unclear to say the least.
Several agriculture ministers protested against this measure at the Council on Tuesday 19 March. To the fore was the Netherlands, which is a major exporter of seed potatoes. The other countries supporting the Netherlands were Denmark, Germany (recalling that Russians were also imposing restrictions on imports of meat and milk), Finland, Poland and the United Kingdom.
The Commission has pointed out that several meetings are scheduled with the Russian authorities in the weeks to come in order to come up with a balanced solution for this mutual trade issue between the EU and Russia. Russians are calling for additional phytosanitary guarantees, calling in particular for more information on plant diseases and more effective traceability of European products. The Russian authorities are also calling for wider access to the European market for potatoes and pine wood from Siberia. The Russian Federation has become the largest importer of potatoes worldwide with import figures of the order of one million tonnes per year. (LC/transl.jl)