MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/. Russia’s agriculture watchdog (Rosselkhoznadzor) will start inspecting Norwegian fish plants on 24 August 2015, its press service reported Monday.
"Rosselkhoznadzor together with veterinary services of member-states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) will be inspecting fish processing plants of Norway, which supply fish products to the EAEU, from August 24 to September 4," the report said.
A respective invitation has been received from Norwegian authoritative body, Rosselkhoznadzor said.
The plan is to assess the work of Norway’s authoritative bodies on providing safety of fish products supplied to the EAEU market.
As TASS reported earlier direct supplies of Norwegian fish and seafood to Russia were suspended after Russia limited imports of foreign agricultural products in early August 2014 in response to sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU) together with Norway, which is not the EU member-state.
According to the data provided by Norway’s committee on fish export issues, fish exports from Norway to Russia dropped by 48% in 2014 compared with 2013 as it reached 3.4 bln krone ($435 mln) by value versus 6.6 bln krone in the previous year. Thus, Norwegian exporters faced at least $400 mln loss. They also lost their biggest market for a year as in 2012 and 2013 Russia was the world’s biggest importer of Norwegian fish.
As was reported earlier Russia’s Rosselkhoznadzor banned canned fish products made by Latvian enterprises Ventspils Fish Canning Plant, GAMMA-A, Sabiedrba IMS, Unda, and Suldusgalaskombinats starting from August 1, 2015. Repeated studies of canned fish products made at these plants "revealed violations of consumer protection legislation," the body reported. In particular, the studies revealed "discrepancy in requirements for labeling, discrepancy weight fraction of the core product, discrepancy of the mass fraction of the components of the basic product, discrepancy in terms of energy value and organoleptic characteristics." The food items that did not meet the requirements were removed from stores.
As of June 4, 2015 Russia imposed a ban on imports of fishery products from Latvia and Estonia in the wake of what the Russian watchdog agency 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.