Russian supermarket

A new report has suggested that Russia has rejected new fresh produce residue proposals put forward by the European Commission.

According to Reefer Trends, Russian phytosanitary authorities have opted to toughen regulations governing fresh produce imports from the European Union following 'a number of Maximum Residue Level (MRL) infringements'.

Philippe Binard of Freshfel told Fruitnet.com that it was a situation the group had been 'closely monitoring' for several months, and that meetings were being urgently prepared for the next two days to further discuss the issue.

In November last year, Freshfel hit out at Russia over the introduction of safety certificates for several products originating from European Union member states – a move that came after Russia and the EU had agreed to hold technicaldiscussions on MRL settings to align Russianrules with international practices.