Russia has lifted a ban on vegetable imports from the Netherlands and Belgium imposed earlier this month by the Russian government, the head of Russia's food safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said on Tuesday.
"After an expert examination, we have today allowed imports from the Netherlands and Belgium so far," Rosselkhoznadzor head Gennady Onishchenko said.
Russia introduced the embargo on vegetable imports from Europe on June 2 after an E. Coli bacteria outbreak caused a pandemic in Europe. The bacteria, bean sprouts grown on a farm in Germany's Lower Saxony region, some 70 km (40 miles) south of Hamburg killed at least 40 people in Europe.
Russia's authorities have said they will lift the ban after the source of infection is identified and the EU takes measures to prevent the supply of infected vegetables to Russia.
Russia and the EU agreed a special regime on June 22 to allow European vegetable imports into Russia before the embargo was lifted. The regime empowers European laboratories to check the safety of products before their delivery to Russia.
Belgium and the Netherlands make up a considerable share of Russia's vegetable imports, with the Netherlands' produce accounting for 30 percent or 2.5 billion euros per year in EU vegetable imports into Russia, Onishchenko said.
Russia's food safety watchdog has also received requests for a cancellation of the import ban for food from Poland, Lithuania, Spain, Denmark and the Czech Republic, Onishchenko said.
"We do not trust Poland as it has a poor credit history and was involved in re-export schemes on many occasions," Onishchenko said.
If Germany sends a request to lift the embargo, Russia will not rush to open the market for German vegetable imports as Germany has registered the largest number of E.Coli infection cases and the source of infection has not yet been positively identified, Onishchenko said.
