Officials from Russia and Singapore reached an agreement involving the inspection of poultry, pork and fish processing plants to enhance food safety for the trade of meat products.
Rosselkhoznadzor, the Russian federal service for veterinary and phytosanitary surveillance, stated in a news release that agency representatives recently held a meeting with Singapore’s Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority, where Nickolay Vlasov, deputy head of the Rosselkhoznadzor, informed the Singapore delegation of measures taken in Russia for the control of highly dangerous diseases. Singpore officials, in turn, provided information about its veterinary control system, principles of certification and laboratory control system.
Upon the conclusion of the meeting, the delegations from the two countries agreed that in the spring of 2017, experts from Singapore would inspect Russian poultry and pork processing plants, while Russian experts would inspect poultry and fish plants in Singapore.
The two countries also agreed to explore establishing a system of electronic certification of animal products being imported and exported between the two countries.
Russia continues to work with meat and poultry producing countries in Asia, as its import possibilities are limited due to a ban on imports of agricultural products from the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway and the European Union. The ban was first implemented in 2014. It was renewed in 2015, and again in 2016. The most recent version of the ban is supposed to remain in place until the end of 2017.
