The Rosselkhoznadzor imposes restrictions on the supply of milk and dairy products from Belarus since February 26

The decision was made following the meeting held by Nikolay Vlasov, Deputy Head of the Rosselkhoznadzor, on the necessity of taking measures in connection with the continuing receipt of unsafe dairy products from the Republic of Belarus to the Russian Federation.

Restrictions, according to the Agency, are introduced since February 26, 2018. The import of the following products is prohibited:

- milk and cream - pasteurized, sterilized and ultra-pasteurized in bulk;

- milk and cream powder, concentrated, canned and condensed milk and cream;

- milk whey, bulk, concentrated and powdered;

- whey and milk protein concentrate. 

Earlier, the Head of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov asked the Head of the Government Dmitry Medvedev to limit the supply of milk powder to the country. 

As the Deputy Head of the Agrarian Committee of the RF State Duma Airat Khairullin noted in the comments to The DairyNews, "today Belarus offers milk powder including delivery at 100 rubles per kilogram, in terms of milk - 11 rubles per liter. There are no such prices anywhere in the world! Milk powder and butter have historically been produced from March till August. In summer excess milk is removed, dried, processed into butter and in autumn they start to supply. The Russian Federation is provided with facilities for the production of the necessary volumes of milk powder and butter. At present we are deficient in raw milk and the figures are different - from 7 to 8.5 million tons. I estimate the deficit of 11 million tons, taking into account surrogates and products with palm oil. There are opportunities to process it and produce the necessary amount of butter and milk powder in Russia". According to the Deputy, it is necessary to close the supply of all dairy and milk-containing products to Russia for at least three months.

It should be noted that the Rosselkhoznadzor clarified that they sent a letter to the Department of veterinary and food supervision of the Ministry of agriculture and food of Belarus "with concern about the current situation with the safety of milk and dairy products coming from Belarusian enterprises".

Currently, temporary restrictions due to the detection of banned and harmful substances have been imposed on 9 enterprises of Belarus, the certification of products of 6 enterprises has been suspended, the regime of enhanced laboratory control has been introduced for 9 enterprises, partially there are restrictions on certain types of dairy products of 18 enterprises.

According to experts interviewed by the DairyNews, the main problem for the Russian dairy market is re-export deliveries of dairy products carried out in transit through the Republic of Belarus. We will remind that earlier the Vice Prime Minister of Belarus Mikhail Rusy stressed that Belarus is fighting hard against smuggling.

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