Federal Service For Veterinary And Phytosanitary Surveillance: Belarusian Authorities Make Business On Contraband

Introduction of the food embargo by Russia has become an “unbelievable success” for Belarus.

“Over 7, 282 tons of green sanction production has been destroyed in total since August 6, 2015,” — representative of the service Yulia Melano has said, TASS reports.

According to her, most fruits and vegetables have been destroyed in Bryansk and Smolensk regions (more than 2,7 thousand tons), Tver and Pskov regions (almost 1,9 thousand tons), Rostov and Volgograd regions and the Republic of Kalmykia (more than 600 tons). The types of plant products such as apples, pears, peaches, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, strawberries, oranges, nectarines, grapes have been destroyed the most.

Herein, the representative of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance has noted that, “the measures imposed by Russia have become an unbelievable success for Belarus”. Moreover, this concerns not only growing the country’s export of its production to Russia, but also increasing of the flow of illegal products through Belarus. “To prevent coming of illegal production from Belarus, the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance was forced to organized temporary admission points at the administrative border at main roads,” – she has reminded.

During illegal shipment of the production from the countries which fell under the food embargo, the suppliers often camouflaged their cargos. “Some particularly sophisticated ways to import illegal animal products were discovered in Leningrad region. Under the guise of gum, juices, chemicals and other products they tried to import banned meat products ", - Melano has said.

Herein , she has underlined that the Russian agricultural manufacturers benefitted from the embargo.

"The two-years period from the date of introduction of the Russian counter-measures showed Russia's ability to do without the usual products from the EU and other countries included in the list of the forbidden production", - Melano has said.

After the imposition of the sanctions, the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance has repeatedly appealed to the Ministry of Agriculture of Belarus with requests to clarify the situation with the off-season and exotic fruits and vegetables, allegedly of the Belarusian origin, which were imported to the Russian Federation. According to the Russian authorities, for example, in 2015 the volume of supplies of papaya, lettuce, citrus fruits, melons, apples, pears, apricots, cherries and other fruits and vegetables from Belarus have increased twice.