News

Talks are to be held in Finland next week in the dispute that is expected to see a ban imposed on some Finnish food imports to Russia on Friday.

The Finnish side in the talks will be headed by the director general of the Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira, Jaana Husu-Kallio, and the Russian side by the director general of Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, Sergei Dankvert.

"The intention is to find points of equivalency in matters where Finnish and Russian laws differ," says Husu-Kallio.

The Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira also replied to Russian authorities concerning the planned ban on some Finnish imports of meat and dairy products to Russia. According to Evira, some adjustments have been made in the operations of several Finnish food producers which Russian officials said fell short of their legal requirements.

The adjustments include changes to some toxological and radiological tests to bring them into line with Russian standards. As of Wednesday, Evira had not released details of which facilities had made the adjustments.

The Food Safety Authority also noted that the longer transport times of raw milk, that have raised Russian objections, do not detrimentally affect the quality of the milk. Kyösti Siponen of Evira said that changing the milk transportation system in Finland would be too large a logistic reorganization to undertake. Furthmore, Finnish companies will not make any changes in production that are in conflict with EU legislation.

Evira does not expect that the ban, scheduled to come into force on Friday, will stay in place long.

Director General Jaana Husu-Kallio says that adjustments at food processing facilities to meet Russian requirements are the responsibility of individual companies, but that she will handle more complex issues, such a milk transport.

The upcoming talks were first reported by the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.

YLE 22.7.2010