Russia has agreed to lift its recently imposed ban on all vegetable imports from the European Union, it has been announced.
The breakthrough came following a day of talks between EU and Russian officials in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, led by European Council president Herman Van Rompuy and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.
Van Rompuy confirmed that the two leaders had agreed the ban on European vegetables would be lifted and that the 'system of certification of the vegetables' safety by the European Commission will be put in place without any delay'.
Russia imposed the ban at the start of June after vegetables including Spanish cucumbers were wrongly suspected of being contaminated with a new and deadly strain of E.coli.
It later emerged that a German beansprout farm had in fact been responsible for supplying contaminated products leading to the outbreak.
Despite finding no evidence of the E.coli strain at the Gärtnerhof Bienenbüttel farm, health ministry officials said epidemiological studies linked the producer's beansprouts to people who had been taken ill.
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