Restrictions on Agricultural Imports from Azerbaijan Have No Political Context, Says Zakharova

Restrictions on agricultural imports from Azerbaijan have no political context, states the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, as reported by ria.ru.

“There is no political context here. Rosselkhoznadzor regularly imposes bans on the import of agricultural products from various countries. This is a standard phytosanitary procedure aimed at preventing the spread of quarantine objects (South American tomato moth, Tuta absoluta (Povolny)) within the territories of Russia and EAEU member states, which can cause significant harm to agriculture and pose risks to food security,” Zakharova noted.

She also mentioned that Rosselkhoznadzor has repeatedly informed Azerbaijan's food safety agency about the periodic detections of the South American tomato moth.

Zakharova added that similar bans have recently been imposed on several other countries in the region, specifically Armenia and Turkey. According to her, the Armenian tomatoes have been found to contain the Pepino mosaic virus, and the Turkish tomatoes have been found to contain several viruses in addition to the ones mentioned.

It should be reminded that Rosselkhoznadzor has banned the import of tomatoes and apples from Azerbaijan to Russia since December 10.