Baltic States – CIS, Export, Foodstuff, Good for Business, Latvia, Markets and Companies, Russia

"The Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance today confirmed by phone that the Russian side considers lifting the restrictions that have been applied to the Latvian fish product exporters, but the final decision will be taken after a report on the findings of inspections at the [Latvian] fish canneries is complete," Meistere said.

Citing information from Rosselkhoznadzor, Meistere said that the completion of the final report will take a couple of more weeks. After that, the Russian food authority will inform the Food and Veterinary Service about its findings, decision and further steps.

As reported, Rosselkhoznadzor representative Alexey Alexeyenko said recently that sprats and other fish products from Latvia and Estonia could return to the Russian market sometime after the new year.

Rosselkhoznadzor informed that Latvia's fish smoking technologies have improved, but that experts still need a few more weeks for their final conclusions.

Rosselkhoznadzor points out that Baltic fish products will most likely be able to return to the Russian market sometime after the new year.

As reported, inspectors from Rosselkhoznadzor in July completed their visit to Latvia to inspect Latvian fish canneries and producers of animal fodder certified for exports to Russia.

The inspectors have since return to Russia to summarize their findings and produce the final report.

After the previous inspection of Latvian fish canneries in May last year, Rosselkhoznadzor banned imports of fish products from Latvia, citing breaches of veterinary and sanitary standards.

On June 4, 2015, Rosselkhoznadzor banned imports of fish products from Latvia and Estonia, citing breaches of veterinary and sanitary standards.