MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia has banned the import of all products with Bulgarian phytosanitary certificates, agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement Thursday.
"On September 1, Rosselkhoznadzor decided to ban the import of any regulated products with 'Bulgarian' phytosanitary certificates to the territory of the Russian Federation," the statement reads.
The watchdog made reference to a statement by the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA), in which it was acknowledged that there were incidences of export and re-export phytosanitary certificates being falsified by third parties in Bulgaria.
On April 25, Rosselkhoznadzor banned the importation of Bulgarian crops and stopped accepting BFSA issued re-export phytosanitary certificates, as many were found to have been falsified to misrepresent food produced in Bulgaria as originating in Brazil, China and Morocco.
