MOSCOW: Russia’s food safety watchdog has released its latest update on the amount of food that has been destroyed as part of an import ban on Western countries that applied sanctions in response to the Crimea conflict.
In August, 2015, one year after the ban was put into place, the government decided to start destroying illegal imports in an attempt to disincentivize trade through gray channels. In its latest update, the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) reported 19,379 metric tons (MT) had been destroyed of which 18,655MT were plant products.
This means 3,248MT of food has been destroyed since the around six months ago. The initial decree included the U.S., EU member countries, Canada, Australia and Norway, but now also includes Ukraine, Albania, Montenegro, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
