MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/. Russia will allow supplies of a wide range of fruit from Moldova starting next week, the country's veterinary regulator said on Friday.

Russia's veterinary and phytosanitary service Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement that it "considered it possible to allow imports of apples, pears and fresh quince, as well as apricots, cherries, peaches, nectarines, plums and fresh sloes starting from September 21, 2015 given that no quarantine objects had been revealed in Moldova’s quarantinable products supplied to Russia".

The agency’s statement said some 42 Moldovan enterprises had been permitted to start exporting fruit to Russia, noting that the supplied products should comply with phytosanitary requirements existing in Russia and the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, and were to be free of quarantine objects.

Russia’s restrictions on Moldovan imports have been the focus of negotiations over the past year.

The embargo, introduced in July 2014 — two weeks before Moscow issued a wider ban on western produce — covered imports of a wide range of Moldovan fresh and canned fruit, a move that was widely seen in the former Soviet republic as retaliation for its drive to conclude political association and free trade deals with the European Union.

Russia also abolished duty-free exemptions for some Moldovan products such as meat, vegetables, sugar and wine.

The loss of the key sales market put many companies on the brink of bankruptcy.

In the summer of 2015, a number of Moldovan enterprises obtained a permit to start exporting berries and fruit to Russia. Now, the list of enterprises allowed to supply their products has been considerably expanded.