Recently in Berlin was held an agricultural exhibition “Green Week – 2014”. Under this project, was held a business meeting of agriculture ministers of Estonia and the Russian Federation – Helir -Valdor Seeder and Nikolai Fyodorov.

The delivery of fish and dairy products were discussed in the light of the recent restrictions imposed by Rosselhoznadzor. Estonian side promised that at the end of this month will be given a detailed report on the state of export products. 

More about the limitations 

09.01.14, restrictions were introduced concerning 11 Estonian companies involved in the production of milk and fish products. 5 of them produce milk, and 6 – fish products. These manufacturers are temporarily not allowed to deliver their goods on the shelves of Russian stores. The ban, according to the Russian side, is due to technical reasons. At the end of 2013 were carried out inspections of Estonian products, and it was found that the internal veterinary control in the country does not work properly. This, in turn, leads to the fact that Estonia does not cope with the implementation of sanitary requirements of the Customs Union. 

In particular, the inspectors were not satisfied with the quality of raw milk and order of labelling and storage of fish products: the inspectors found that it is quite difficult to understand, when it was made ​​and how long products are stocked. Regarding to milk official documents, which would contain information on laboratory testing of raw materials, were not submitted to the Russian side. 

According to the Minister of agriculture of Estonia, a detailed report about correcting observations Russian auditors will be given at the end of the month. At the negotiations, it became clear that both sides are interested in renewing the cooperation. 

Estonia is an interesting supplier for Russia. Ban has touched sprat, and it is about 50 % of the total fish exports to the country. If take it as a whole, the share of Estonian exports in total exports is about 18%. It is expected that supply will be resumed after three months and these are approximate dates. 

Rosselhoznadzor imposes restrictions on imported products not in the first time. Still restrictions concerned mainly countries of the Customs Union, Ukraine, but recent events show that Russian inspectors and demanding enough to produce European manufacturers.