Russia has banned imports of all agricultural produce from Bulgaria as of September 1, over forged certificates from the EU country, Russia’s agriculture watchdog said in a statement Thursday.
A wide range of food imports from Bulgaria is already subject to Russia’s food embargo, which Russia introduced last year in response to Western sanctions imposed on the country over its role in the Ukraine crisis.
The new restrictions were introduced after Bulgaria acknowledged that a number of export and re-export agricultural certificates were false, agriculture watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement. Rosselkhoznadzor has imposed a temporary ban on all agricultural imports and re-exports from Bulgaria.
On April 25, Russia imposed a ban on re-exported fruit and vegetables from Bulgaria over a number of cases involving fake certificates. Rosselkhoznadzor suspected that exported apples, which according to Bulgarian certificates were being re-exported from Brazil, Morocco and China, actually came from EU countries, the Interfax news agency reported at the time.