No colon bacillus detected in fish production of Armenian companies-
Fish Farmers Association
YEREVAN, December 12./ARKA/. The colon bacillus is not detected in
fish production of the four fish exporting Armenian companies, Artur
Atoyan, the head of the Association of Fish Farmers of Armenia, said
Tuesday.
On September 27, Rosselkhoznadzor (Russia’s Federal Service for
Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance) imposed restrictions on
fish imports, as it detected the colon bacillus in the fish production
imported from Iceland and Armenia. Particularly, Russia’s controlling
service said the bacterium was found in the production of the four
companies (Aquatechautomatika, Unifish, Dimitri and Gos).
`Scrupulous examination was carried out on all these enterprises, and
the colon bacillus was not detected on any of them,’ he noted.
Atoyan also assured the bacterium could not get transmitted into the
production prior to the export , as the production is rigorously
examined by Food Safety Service of Armenia before it is exported.
He implied the fish production could catch the colon bacillus as a
result of inappropriate transportation on the territory of Russia.
Another reason might be an improper storage in Russian stores.
Tigran Aleksanyan, the head of Fishing industry and Beekeeping
department at Armenia’s Ministry of Agriculture, said due to the
bacterium detection, Russia imposed a strict control over the two
Armenian companies, Unifish and Gos, and banned import from the other
two, Aquatechautomatika and Dimitri.
However, following the talks between the Ministry of Agriculture of
Armenia and Rosselkhoznadzor, the latter agreed to remove the strict
control over Unifish and Gos. The Surveillance body said it will do
away with the import ban on the other two companies at the end of the
year.
Aleksanyan also said the number of the Armenian companies exporting
fish to Russia rose from 22 to 29 this year, and by the end of this
year this list will have included another 10 enterprises.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture of Armenia, as of 1 December
2012, fish exports rose to nearly 1,200 tons versus 900 tons from a
year earlier. Armenia exports fish to Russia (nearly 80-90% of the
total exported production), Georgia, the UAE, the U.S., and some other
states. – 0-