12:21 | 17.03.2016 Category: Economic

Chisinau, 17 March /MOLDPRES/- About 20 tons of Moldovan apples have been destroyed by employees of an office from Rostov and Volgograd of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, Rosselkhoznadzor, on a solid waste landfill in the Rostov region.

According to a communiqué by Rosselkhoznadzor, issued on 16 March, the case took place on 8 March, when the Russian police stopped a truck loaded with 19.8 tons of fresh apples on the 944th km of the Don route. The car's driver said the apples were to be carried from Moscow to Simferopol.

After verifications made by phytosanitary inspectors, it was found out that the apples had been transported in cartons, without being marked, and having no labels containing the name of the product and producer. Moreover, the Rusisan inspectors note that the documents certifying the phytosanitary control were missing.

The only document presented by the driver was a certificate of conformity, proving that Moldova was the origin country of the goods. The accompanying documents included an enterprise, which, according to the Single State Registry of Legal Entities from Russia, had been removed from the register.

The apples were confiscated and destroyed on the solid waste landfill from Novoshakhtinsk, Rostov region, on 14 March.

Rosselkhoznadzor head Sergey Dankvert has earlier said that Russia would tighten the rules for entering its market by adopting measures meant to oblige Moldovan apple and pear exporters to deliver the production only through Russian checkpoints placed in the Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk regions. Subsequently, the service informed that it had temporarily suspended the import of fruits and vegetables, with Moldovan phytosanitary certificates, to the Russian market through Belarus, starting from 14 March.

Russia has suspicions that re-exports of apples and pears are made from EU via Belarus, disguised as goods from Moldova. “In this context, the service does not exclude the possibility to introduce restrictions on the import of such products for the companies which have been involved in such illegal schemes”, says a press release by Rosselkhoznadzor from last January.

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor M. Jantovan)