Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) has vowed to limit imports of Serbian apples, news site ITAR-TASS reported.

Rosselkhoznadzor head Sergey Dankvert said the measure was related to the large-scale falsification of phytosanitary papers.

"The Europeans arranged a large-scale production of falsified documents for Russia. We checked 33 Serbian apple certificates and only one of them was the authentic," Dankvert was quoted as saying.

Yesterday the agricultural watchdog said a shipment of apples from Serbia weighing more than 97 metric tons (MT) was accompanied by five counterfeit certificates, and their fraudulent nature was confirmed by Serbian officials.

"We have to introduce a prior notice procedure in respect of apples from Serbia. Products will not be authorized to cross the border without inspection," Dankvert was quoted as saying.

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