Russia has lifted ban on ten Egyptian companies exporting citrus fruits (mainly oranges) to Moscow, state’s news agency MENA reported on Friday.
The 2013/14 citrus annual report of US Department of Agriculture said Egypt has been facing the Mediterranean fruit fly, which is the main economic pest negatively affecting production and exports.
Accordingly, complaints have been raised by some importing countries such as Russia and Ukraine after detecting some shipments infected with fruit flies.
The Egyptian government is funding the “Fruit Fly Resistance Project” that aims to control the spread of this pest and administers other regulations that have been in place in order to control the quality of the exported fruit.
Despite the complaints and the Russian ban, Egypt’s orange exports registered 37 percent of the total agricultural crops in 2012/13, recording 16,000 tonnes turning out some LE41 million, the Egyptian Agricultural export council showed.