The ban on the import of British fruit and vegetables to Russia has been partially lifted in order to allow British seed potatoes to be exported.
According to the Voice of Russia news outlet, an agreement has been reached to lift the ban on seed potatoes imported into Russia from Britain because of a need for the vegetables in seed to enable growth of crops.
Russia imposed a ban on all US and EU meat, fish, dairy, fruit and vegetables earlier this month in response to western sanctions imposed on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.
Robert Burns, head of seed and export at Potato Council, told the Voice of Russia: “We had actually hoped to grow this market and we had an awful lot of interest from Russia for new varieties of potato that we had hoped to export.
“This now opens the doorway to negotiate, and opens up the market to much larger tonnage. We have one of the largest high-health EU status areas within the EU. The whole of Scotland is covered by what’s called a ‘high-health designated area’, so the quality of the seed that’s coming out of that area is significantly higher than other parts of Europe.
“We’re certainly looking to the long term plan, in terms of exports to Russia. Although there are political problems at the moment, we’re hoping that these will be resolved and we’re looking for a long-term solution for our exporters and also for the farmers in Russia to be able to import good quality seeds and novel varieties which they very much need.“
Russia needs different varieties of seed potatoes because of its complex climate.
