Russia bans import of grain from Kazakhstan

AKIPRESS.COM – Rosselkhoznadzor asked Kazakhstan to suspend the issuance of phytosanitary certificates for grain and its processed products, sunflower seeds and other crops exported to Russia.

The Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan received this notification in mid-September, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Kazakhstan Ermek Kenjehanuly said.

The request was made because of “identified quarantine facilities” in the delivered products, which threatened the phytosanitary well-being of Russia.

“We asked to provide us with supporting facts about the identified violations. We need today to make sure that these violations actually take place, we asked for relevant acts on the identified laboratory studies and results of these works,” Kenjehanuly said adding that the Russian side has not yet responded.

The Kazakhstan’s APK News referring to participants of the grain market called the appeal of Rosselkhoznadzor a retaliatory measure against the ban on the import of Russian grain into Kazakhstan, which was imposed on August 1 and will be effective until the end of this year. The decision was taken to keep the import of large quantities of cheap Russian wheat in the country, during the good harvest. The Grain Union of Kazakhstan did not agree with that. They warned of possible retaliatory measures by Russia against Kazakh farmers.

“This is a possible trade war,” the representative of the Grain Union Yevgeny Karabanov told the APK News.

“Our authorities have two options: either to lift the ban on importing Russian wheat, or to introduce a ban on flour, milk, meat products and so on. But it should be noted that in response there will be a ban on the transit of coal, oil and petroleum products… In the second case, exit from the Eurasian Economic Union would be a logical position. And end to the EAEU…”.

Karabanov added that the restrictions imposed by Rospotrebnadzor are nothing other than the “official warning that Russia will tightly protect its economic interests”. The participants of the market report that they started “facing difficulties” during transportation of Kazakh grain by transit through Russia to Europe.

Meanwhile the “Independent newspaper” notes that a large crop of grain is expected this year up to 17 million tons of wheat. The country can meet its own needs with the remaining 2 million tons and the remaining product will go for export.