This year, the first to face the claims of the Rosselkhoznadzor were the fisheries of the republic. The Russians reported violations of veterinary control standards in force in the Eurasian Economic Union, which were committed by Republican fish processing companies.
I must say that Kyrgyz fish farms have already, more than once, informed about their shortcomings, but not all of them have been eliminated. As a result, from February 16, 2023, the Rosselkhoznadzor suspended the certification in the Russian Federation of trout and trout caviar from Kyrgyzstan.
One of the reasons was called “grey” export, but the main ones were the presence of Listeria monocytogenes, a certain type of pathogenic bacteria, in chilled trout, as well as the maximum authorized content of antibiotics in frozen fish and salted caviar . Then employees of the Rosselkhoznadzor personally came to Kyrgyzstan and inspected some enterprises in the fishing industry.
During the inspections, violations in the work of the farms themselves, the lack of a risk analysis system, as well as weak laboratory control were revealed. Based on the facts revealed, the veterinary service drew up a plan and a roadmap to eliminate the deficiencies, after which it took the appropriate measures. We have informed our partners of the work carried out.
This convinced Russian colleagues and already 12 days after the ban was introduced, that is, on April 28, 2023, two companies from the Kyrgyz Republic received permission from the Rosselkhoznadzor to import fish and fishery products in the Russian Federation.
After the Russians conducted an online inspection of four more companies and authorized the export of two more companies from June 23, 2023. At the end of June, more than a thousand tons of fish were shipped to the Russian Federation . Regarding the remaining fish farms, we expect a response from the Russian side in the near future.
Republican milk processing enterprises have also encountered problems when exporting their products to Russia. Of course, here the situation is different.
Rosselkhoznadzor told us that in some regions of the Russian Federation the volume of butter from Kyrgyzstan has increased significantly. Compared to the same period in 2022, it has increased almost six times – up to 900 tons.
This raised some suspicions. The Russians requested information on the number of dairy processing enterprises of the Kyrgyz Republic, as well as those that send their products for export to Russia, indicating their range.
After receiving the required information, Rosselkhoznadzor asked to organize an inspection of the five largest dairy processing enterprises in the country. As a result of the inspections, violations were revealed, mainly related to insufficient laboratory control, storage of unlabeled products, as well as shortcomings in production.
At present, all these violations have been eliminated, and the relevant documents confirming this have been sent to the Rosselkhoznadzor. After negotiations, the agency lifted the restriction for four companies. Since June 22, 2023, the export of dairy products to Russia has resumed.
The Russians also questioned one of the companies producing sausages under the halal brand. After the inspection, it turned out that the claims in this case had no basis and they were withdrawn.
At the end of April, a meeting took place in Moscow between the director of the Veterinary Service of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Kyrgyz Republic Ashirbay Zhusupov and the head of Rosselkhoznadzor Sergey Dankvert. They discussed the current situation and ways to address emerging issues. At the end of June, the dialogue with the Russian side continued, but this time by videoconference.
Sergey Dankvert stressed the importance of establishing a modern veterinary control system in Kyrgyzstan. He believes that this will become a guarantee of product safety and quality for the republic’s trading partners, including the Russians. An example for the development of this area can be Rosselkhoznadzor’s many years of experience in the development and implementation of digital technologies in supervisory activities.
Since a large part of our agricultural exports are destined for Russia and the regulatory authorities of the Russian Federation have recently received complaints about our products, we have decided to intensify the work with Russian colleagues.
At the invitation of the veterinary service, in June, specialists from the Russian Federation conducted training for employees of the veterinary diagnostic and examination center and the representative office of the center in the southern region of the country.
Help “RG”
According to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Kyrgyz Republic, from June 9 to June 15, 2023 alone, employees of the Department of Chemicalization, Plant Protection and Quarantine controlled the export of almost 14,000 tons of products Republican farmers. In the first place in terms of deliveries to Russia, Kazakhstan and other countries, vegetables from the Chui region (2.9 thousand tons).
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