Ukrainian cheese cos exports to Russia

Three Ukrainian companies have been cleared to restart cheese supplies to Russia after their products were checked by Russia’s food safety inspectors, Ukraine’s Economic Development and Trade Minister Petro Poroshenko said on Tuesday.  “We have agreed that we, the Ukrainian side and the Ukrainian government, will provide guarantees for the fulfillment of this plan of measures (compliance with Russian food safety standards) with regard to those companies that have undergone the checks,” Poroshenko said after a meeting with Russia’s sanitary chief Gennady Onishchenko. Russia’s consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor in February imposed a ban on the products of seven Ukrainian cheese plants, saying they violated Russian milk and milk product standards, as the cheeses contained vegetable fats instead of animal fats whereas their labels did not reflect the information. The Ukrainian producers said their products met all necessary requirements. Kiev and Moscow agreed in early April to use a laboratory in Ukraine to monitor the compliance of Ukrainian cheese quality with Russian requirements.