The Russian and Norwegian fishing industries are likely to suffer serious losses if the Russian Federal Veterinary And Phytosanitary Monitoring Service (Rosselhoznadzor) imposes a ban on imports of Norwegian as is currently under consideration.
The justification for this potential ban is the finding of live larvae and harmful bacteria in imports of Norway fish to Russia, as confirmed by the results of numerous tests, conducted by the experts of Rosselhoznadzor and the apparent unwillingness of Norway to strengthen its controls.
The imposition of a ban on Norwegian fish imports could create a serious crisis in the Russian fishing industry, since Norway currently supplies up to 40% of all fish imported into Russia, a significant portion being chilled salmon and trout, which is raw material for many Russian fish-processing plants.
In order to prevent a shortage of fish on the Russian market, representatives of the Russian Fishery Union have already called on the national government to suspend the imposition of a ban.
In an official statement, leading Russian fish processing companies have stated that the imposition of a ban will result in massive job cuts and termination of already signed contracts to supply fish products to retail chains.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that Norway is in no hurry to meet the requirements of Russian Rosselhoznadzor and has asked to postpone all the negotiations regarding this issue until mid-May.
This delay is unacceptable to Rosselhoznadzor and an official representative, Alex Alexeenko, is currently trying to establish direct contacts with Norwegian fish producers to receive assurances and guarantees of the safety of their production.
At the same time, in order to avoid the ban, the Russian Fishing Union has already proposed revision of the whole system of control of safety of imported products through the introduction of a mechanism of thorough veterinary certification, that would allow Rosselhoznadzor to get the whole set of information, such as feed composition, the names of drugs used in the treatment of fish, the location of fish farms etc.