On March 3, the Rosselkhoznadzor in the format of a videoconference held negotiations with representatives of the Directorate General for Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The main topic of the meeting was the delivery of Dutch seed potatoes to the territory of the Russian Federation.
The Russian side noted that since 2013, seed potatoes have been supplied from the Netherlands to Russia at the request of Russian participants in foreign economic activity based on the results of pre-shipment inspections of consignments of the specified regulated products (Federal Law No. 21-FZ of July 2014, 206 "On Plant Quarantine" and Government Resolution Russian Federation dated February 8, 2018 No. 128).
However, according to the Rosselkhoznadzor, due to the difficult epidemiological situation with COVID-19 in 2020, the import of seed potatoes was carried out without pre-shipment monitoring.
The Russian department proposed two options for possible further interaction in the framework of the supply of Dutch products.
The online pre-shipment monitoring system, developed and implemented by the Rosselkhoznadzor, has become an effective tool for monitoring plant products under the current restrictions. The Service previously sent information about the procedure for conducting a video inspection to the competent department of the Kingdom. The Rosselkhoznadzor stressed that monitoring should be carried out only in real time. Thus, the remote format made it possible to carry out pre-shipment control of seed potatoes in France.
The Russian department recalled that at the beginning of December 2018, during the pre-shipment control in the Netherlands, employees of the Service identified a quarantine for the EAEU and absent in Russia object - brown rot of potatoes Ralstonia solanacearum (Smith) Yabuuchi et al. (= Pseudomonas solanacearum (Smith) Smith). The inspection was carried out in warehouses in the Anna Paulowna region.
Another option for interaction is the procedure for recognizing the zones where products are grown free from quarantine facilities for Russia and the EAEU. This procedure involves sending detailed dossiers to the Rosselkhoznadzor in accordance with the provisions of international standards for phytosanitary measures. In February 2021, in accordance with the materials received from the National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO) of Finland, the Rosselkhoznadzor declared a potato production enterprise in Finland free of quarantine organisms.
The Dutch colleagues previously presented to the Russian side a list of lots of seed potatoes planned for shipment. The Rosselkhoznadzor noted that the information did not contain information necessary for the recognition of zones free from quarantine objects.
In order to avoid violating the contractual obligations of foreign economic activity participants and taking into account the long period of preparation of a detailed map of the zones, the Russian supervisory authority proposed in the near future to work out the issue of conducting pre-shipment monitoring of seed potatoes, as well as planting material exported from the Netherlands to the territory of the Russian Federation, in the online format.
The parties agreed to continue consultations on this issue.