Stanislau Ivashkevich, Belsat 26 November 2015, 20:21
Belarus continues to smuggle food to Russia, said the representative of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Gusev. The statement was made against the backdrop of daily violations that Rosselkhoznadzor finds with Belarusian products.
This year Rosselkhoznadzor has found hundreds of fake certificates on imported products from third countries, that arrived in Russia from Belarus. According to Russian authorities, the Belarusian inspectors not only fail to detect counterfeit products, but also prevent their Russian colleagues from doing it.
On Monday, Rosselkhoznadzor destroyed 63 tons of mushrooms and tangerines, which, according to the Belarusian documents, came from Turkey. The Turkish producer indicated on the certificate said that he had not produced such products. Russian officials suspect that under the Turkish branded mandarins our country is supplying European fruit against which the Kremlin imposed sanctions last year.
This year Belarus increased the import of fruit twofold, and its exports to Russia – two and a half times. Belarus has imported one and a half times more sea fish in Russia than last year. Exports of milk and dairy products increased by an average of 15 percent. In total, according to Leonid Zlotnikov, due to the probable smuggling, Belarus could increase agricultural exports by more than half a billion dollars.
Last week Rosselkhoznadzor blacklisted 13 more of Belarusian dairy and fish enterprises – under suspicions that they processed Ukrainian milk and Baltic herring. Meanwhile, volume of own agricultural production this year decreased 4% – due to the extremely hot summer and the lack of government subsidies for kolkhoz farms.
The specialists note that the increased exports of Belarusian goods to Russia should not be expected. According to the calculations of economist Leanid Zaika, by supplying domestic meat and milk for export, our agriculture incurs a loss of 30 percent of sales. It can last only as long as the authorities are able to subsidize such exports.
