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Latvia expects Russia to decide on lifting fish imports ban by end of week

In early August, the Latvian veterinary agency submitted a report on the quality of fish produced in the country to the Russian watchdog but some documents were submitted in the Latvian language

RIGA, August 17 / TASS/. Latvia expects Russia to decide on lifting the ban on fish imports in the end of this week, Arvids Zirnis, head of the department for control over animal products at Latvia’s food and veterinary agency told TASS.

Zirnis said that his agency has sent the required Russian translations of documents on fish production monitoring to the Russian authorities and hopes to hear from them before the end of the week.

"The question to our [Russian -TASS] colleagues is how long they will study these documents. We hope it won’t last long - as early as this week," he said.

In early August, the Latvian veterinary agency submitted a report on the quality of fish produced in the country to the Russian watchdog - the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) but some documents were submitted in the Latvian language.

During a conference call on August 3 the parties agreed that the Latvian agency would translate those documents into Russian.

According to Zirnis, on August 12 translation was completed and e-mailed to Moscow.

Latvia hopes that the submitted documents would be enough for the Russian authorities to decide on lifting a ban on imports of Latvian fish products.

"We do not see any other reason for the ban," Zirnis said.

On June 4, Russia banned imports of fish products from Latvia and Estonia after Rosselkhoznadzor had found systemic violations in the supply of fish products by the companies of those countries. In particular, unacceptable levels of benzopyrene were found in the products.

On August 5, Russia’s Agriculture Ministry said after the talks between Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev and his Latvian counterpart Janis Duklavs that Russia might lift the ban of imports of fish products in two weeks.

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