MOSCOW: Aleksey Alekseenko, a spokesperson at Russia’s Federal Service of Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznador), has said the withdrawal of an import ban on Turkish agricultural produce will be announced this week. Speaking to the Russian news agency RIA, Alekseenko revealed that the decision regarding the withdrawal of the import ban on Turkish vegetables will be announced on Dec. 26 or Dec. 27.
Stating that Russia will immediately restart importing agricultural products from Turkey once the decision is reached, Alekseenko confirmed that the last stages of technical works were about to be completed. Sergey Dankvert, the head of Rosselkhoznadzor, had previously said that Russia may withdraw the import ban on eggplant, zucchini and lettuce in an earlier statement. As the normalization of ties between Turkey and Russia commenced back in August, the removal of the import ban on Turkish agricultural products had also came to the agenda.
In November, a meeting held between Turkey’s Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock Faruk Çelik and his Russian counterpart Alexander Tkachev, under the scope of the 2nd World Grain Forum, brought the lifting of sanctions on key Turkish products. At the meeting, talks on resuming the exports of eggplants, peppers, pomegranates, and zucchini took place. In order to resume the import of more agricultural produce from Turkey, Russian experts from the Kremlin conducted a technical assessment in Turkey from Nov. 7-11, which will form the basis of this week’s decision.
