Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) has blocked 5,900 metric tons (MT) of "contraband" produce items coming from Belarus since the start of 2015.

In a recent update, the agricultural watchdog said it had intercepted products with 302 falsified certificates of origin, of which 129 were labeled as from Turkey and 78 were described as Moroccan.

Other fraudulent country of origin certificates came from Macedonia (32), Tunisia (28), Serbia (22), Bosnia and Herzegovina (8) and Brazil (5).

The agency said 122 cases of fraudulent imports from the country had occurred between Feb. 20 and May 15, which confirmed the Belarusian authorities "continue to be inactive in the prevention of movement of illegal products in the territory of the Customs Union".

Rosselkhoznadzor noted the figure for interceptions in the last five months has been 3.5 times higher than during the first five months after Russia's ban on food imports from sanctioning countries was implemented.

Photo: www.shutterstock.com

www.freshfruitportal.com