Russia calls for European Commission official probe of sanctioned food smuggling

Russian agricultural standards agency urged the European Commission to conduct an official investigation in sanctioned food produce smuggling to Russia, the agency said.
“To settle this situation Russian agricultural watchdog has sent in the European Commission general directorate for health care and consumer protection copies of forged documents and official letters from domestic organizations on quarantine and plant protection verifying their falsification and asked to conduct an official inquiry into these facts,” the agency said.
In particular, the agency stated about frequented cases of under-quarantine produce supplies from the EU states to Russia. Most these supplies are made from the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Lithuania, the domestic food safety standards agency said. Exporters counterfeit phytosanitary certificates from Israel, Turkey and Chile.
The domestic agricultural supervisory agency also said earlier about falsified Dutch, Chilean and Albanian phytosanitary certificates and re-export phytosanitary certificates.
Frequented cases of faked certificates point to “serious flaws in phytosanitary control system in the EU states and the export of European sanctioned produce provided with forged phytosanitary certificates of other countries by fraudulent organizations in the EU states,” the agency said.