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Russian on imports of fishery products from Latvia to damage fisheries seriously

"The stuff of many enterprises is on annual leaves now," Imants Cirulis said

RIGA, June 4. /TASS/. Russia’s ban on imports of fishery products from Latvia will do a telling blow to this sector of the Latvian economy, with a risk of bankruptcies and redundancies, Imants Cirulis, the head of the Latvian association of fish producers said on Thursday.

"The stuff of many enterprises is on annual leaves now," he said. "Add to it the season of equipment repairs. This pause will be long for many producers but we’ll yet have to see how long and for whom because those of them who sold more than a half of their produce to Russia will have a hard time.

"In the worst situation, many of them won’t be able to resume production operations at all," he said. "People will become redundant and the enterprises will be unable to meet their financial obligations," Cirulis said.

As of June 4, 2015, Russia imposes a ban on the imports of fishery products from Latvia and Estonia in the wake of what the Russian agricultural watchdog agency, Rosselkhoznadzor, described as regular encroachments on the regulations for supplies.

In part, the agency detected inadmissible levels of benzopyrene in Latvian fish.

Fresh, frozen and chilled fish from Estonia and Latvia fell under Russian food embargoes earlier and its imports are impossible through to August 2015. But preserves and fish-meal were not included in the initial list.