The major task of the veterinary services of Belarus and Russia is to promptly deal with the problems which arise in food supplies, Belarus' Vice Premier Mikhail Rusyi said in an interview to the Belarus One TV channel.
According to the Vice Premier, “no political or economic union can allow a situation when one agency or one person takes decisions which later create problems and require attention at the top level.”
Mikhail Rusyi stressed that the veterinary services should not play the role of “an economic hitman” but should tackle the problems when they arise. “The two veterinary services should look into the matter together, and bring order if there are any unresolved issues,” the Vice Premier said.
Mikhail Rusyi stressed that Belarus also has questions to the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of Russia (Rosselkhoznadzor). “I will not hide this. We have a lot of questions to this agency,” he said.
Mikhail Rusyi drew attention to the issue of counterfeiting of Belarusian food products on the Russian market. According to him, Belarusian cheeses, butter, dry milk are often counterfeited in Russia. As an example he cited the cases that happen in stores of St. Petersburg. “A store gets a box which reads ‘spread'. In the box there are foil-coated bars of something without any readings. They are labeled as made by ‘Bereza cheese factory'. The content is absolutely bad. Thus, I have several questions to Rosselkhoznadzor. First: why goods with such marking are allowed. Second: why stores accept the goods without proper paperwork, no one knows what is in there. Third: If you have determined that these are counterfeit goods, and it clearly shows that these are counterfeit goods, why no immediate action is taken,” Mikhail Rusy said.
Mikhail Rusyi underlined that the Belarusian side promptly informs Russian colleagues about such facts. “Our goal is to combat counterfeiting. We must carry out a tough policy in this regard together. There should be no fake goods on our store shelves. In our country it is a criminal offence, with tough punishment,” Mikhail Rusyi emphasized.