Armenia and Russia agree on phytosanitary inspections at Armenian firms

Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, Rosselkhoznadzor, said it had reached an agreement to conduct inspections at several Armenian enterprises following talks with Tigran Petrosyan, head of Armenia’s Food Safety Inspection Body.

According to a statement released by Rosselkhoznadzor, the Russian agency will also inspect companies whose exports to Russia had previously been suspended over the “suspected import of falsified fish products allegedly of European origin,” following a request from the Armenian side.

The agency said a preliminary inspection and analysis of imported rainbow trout, including photographs, had raised doubts about the origin of the raw materials used in the production of the fish products.

Rosselkhoznadzor stated that the rainbow trout declared in veterinary documents did not correspond morphologically to the imported fish. According to the agency, the fish had colouring atypical for the species and an unusually large weight exceeding 5.5 kilograms, which, it said, indicated that the fish may have belonged to another salmon family or species.

The Russian agency added that, following the agreements reached and at Armenia’s request, it plans to inspect Armenian crop production enterprises to ensure the supply of genuinely Armenian and phytosanitarily safe products.

Rosselkhoznadzor also expressed concern over what it described as a growing number of quarantine organisms detected in quarantine-regulated products imported to Russia from Armenia by member states of the Eurasian Economic Union.

The statement added that the agency’s regional office has already tightened phytosanitary controls on quarantine goods supplied from Armenia to Russia.