MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti) – Russian officials next week will inspect production facilities of Ukrainian candy maker Roshen, about two months after Russia banned imports from the company, Russia’s sanitary watchdog said Wednesday.
The company has provided all the necessary food-safety documentation to begin talks on lifting the ban, the watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said in a statement.
“Next week, when an examination of these documents is concluded, Rospotrebnadzor inspectors plan to visit the factories,” the watchdog said.
On July 30, Russia banned imports from Roshen after the carcinogen benzopyrene, which can naturally occur in roasted coffee and cocoa beans, was found in analyzed product samples.
The Russian ban came about two weeks after the country imposed additional border checks on Ukrainian goods at its border on August 15, causing long delays and queues.
Arseny Yatsyenuk, head of the opposition Rodina faction in the Ukrainian parliament, described the checks as an attempt to pressure Ukraine into joining a Russian-led customs union instead of signing a free-trade agreement with the European Union in November. The two deals are mutually exclusive.
Russia has been involved in a series of politically tinged commercial spats with its former Soviet neighbors. On September 11, Russia banned imports of wine and spirits from Moldova, another country hoping to sign a similar trade deal with the EU.
Comparable restrictions were also imposed on Lithuania, the host nation of an EU summit in which Ukraine and Moldova are expected to clinch trade deals, pulling the former Soviet republics away from Moscow’s orbit. Russia imposed additional border checks on Lithuanian trucks entering Russia and banned imports of the country’s dairy products.
