Lukashenka threatens Russia with retaliatory measures to restrict supplies of Belarusian food


MINSK, March 1. / TASS /. Belarus will respond to Russia's restrictions on the supply of Belarusian food to the Russian market. This was stated on Thursday by President Alexander Lukashenko, meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Rusym.

"I want to say that such things will not remain unanswered, we simply will not tolerate it," said Lukashenko, whose words are cited by the state agency BelTA.

Referring to the data of the Belarusian special services, the president of Belarus said that they imported to Russia "from New Zealand or from somewhere dry milk, there are surpluses, and they begin to hold us until they sell that milk at high prices." "Therefore, they do not like cheap milk," Lukashenko said.

"We will give them our milk at the price we consider necessary, and they let the Russians increase the price, if there are already Russian people, Muscovites or Petrograders, eaten up with New Zealand milk," Lukashenko said. He asked Rusov, who headed the government delegation of Belarus to Moscow to settle the situation, the course of negotiations with the Russian side on the supply of Belarusian food.

The essence of the claims

Russian Rosselkhoznadzor has repeatedly expressed claims to Belarusian dairy products, finding in it the remains of banned substances. So, in January, the import of one of the largest Belarusian dairy producers, the company "Babushkina Krynka" was banned to import into Russia.

February 22, 2018 Rosselkhoznadzor announced the introduction from February 26 of the temporary restrictions on the supply of certain types of Belarusian milk and raw materials to Russia. The ban is related to the "continued receipt of unsafe dairy products" and will touch milk in bulk and pasteurized, sterilized and ultra-pasteurized cream in bulk, as well as dry, concentrated, canned and condensed cream, lactose, concentrated, dry whey, whey concentrate and milk protein. However, the restrictions do not apply to packaged milk and dairy products. On February 26, the imposition of restrictions on the importation of dairy products from Belarus was postponed to March 6 due to "technical reasons."

It was also reported that from March 1, 2018 Rosselkhoznadzor introduces restrictions on the supply of products of the Belarusian enterprise Stolbtsy meat-packing plant in connection with the re-identification of antibiotic residues in beef.

In addition, Rosselkhoznadzor introduces enhanced laboratory control for another 9 Belarusian enterprises due to the identification of residues of various antibiotics in their products. In particular, control is introduced in relation to Bobruisk meat processing plant, Belovezhsky Cheese, Golpoltorg LLC, Minyuka FH, Milavita, Nesvizh baby food factory, Slutsk meat processing plant, Zdravushka Milk company, and Orshansky dairy plant (production workshop Sennensky).

Reference: http://tass.ru/ekonomika/4998695