MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/. Vietnam’s representatives showed interest at a meeting with the Russian agricultural watchdog’s officials in purchasing more than 2 mln tonnes of Russian grain in 2020, the Russian federal service said on Tuesday.
"Vietnam has expressed interest in buying Russian grain in 2020 to the tune of more than 2 mln tonnes," the watchdog said in a statement.
According to Rosselkhoznadzor, on October 24-25, Vietnam hosted talks between Anton Karamzin, who heads the watchdog’s branch in the Rostov, Volgograd and Astrakhan Regions and the Republic of Kalmykia, with Hoang Trung, Director General of the Plant Protection Department.
After the meeting, Vietnam suggested introducing attestation for Russian exporters. To this aim, the watchdog will send a list of companies interested in exporting wheat to the Vietnamese market, detailing the volume of supplies carried out with the use of equipment for separating grain from weed seeds in order to meet Vietnam’s phytosanitary demands.
According to the watchdog, Vietnam seeks to monitor the procedure of loading vessels with wheat, which will head to the country, and plans to visit the All-Russian Plant Quarantine Center to discuss particular phytosanitary risks.
In order to avoid risks of forging phytosanitary certificates, the sides agreed on notifying each other about the issued documents at the moment of loading. The two countries also pledged to step up compliance with phytosanitary requirements in grain supplies.
On October 17, an official spokesperson for Russia’s agricultural watchdog, Yulia Melano, reported that the issue of certificates for exporting wheat to Vietnam would be suspended. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov, who chairs a bilateral intergovernmental commission for trade and economic, scientific and technical cooperation, told TASS earlier on Tuesday that Russia had resumed wheat supplies to Vietnam.