Phytosanitary specialists from Russia are expected to pay a visit to Moldova to discuss the phytosanitary requirements of the Russian side with experts of the National Food Safety Agency (ANSA). The visit is to be made at the invitation of Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Ion Sula and the Agency’s acting director general Grigore Porcescu, which was issued during a visit to Moscow, IPN reports.

The Moldovan officials had a meeting with the Russian deputy minister of agriculture and the head of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor). The interlocutors spoke about the progress made by the ANSA in the sanitary-veterinary sector and about the removal of the irregularities identified at animal slaughtering units during the visit paid by experts of Rosselkhoznadzor last November. The Moldovan side asked including all the Moldovan meat producing companies that meet the hygiene and safety criteria imposed by Russia in the list of exporters.

The Moldovan side also proposed that the sides should review the provisions of the memorandum on the ensuring of the inoffensiveness of the exported products of vegetal origin, signed by Moldova and Russia, as regards the pesticide residues and the content of nitrates so that all the exporters that meet the phytosanitary and inoffensiveness conditions and requirements be included in the list of exporters.

The sides agreed that the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, together with ANSA, will assess the existing lists and will furnish relevant information to Rosselkhoznadzor as soon as possible. Moldova must also inform the Russian side about the quantities of table grapes and fruit produced and stored until now. At the invitation of the Moldovan side, a team of Russian experts will soon visit nurseries and apple and table grape cold storage facilities in Moldova.

The sides also agreed to convene the Common Board of the ministries of agriculture of the two states at the beginning of 2016.