The Latvian fishing industry could lose up to €200 million because of Russian ban on imports of fish products from Latvia. "The size of losses could reach from 100 to 200 million euros. Declare that it is the individual adherents of the industry. We would like to explore this issue more clearly and say, what are these values," Latvian Agricultural Minister Jānis Dūklavs said.
Within two months, the Food and Veterinary Service of Latvia and industry's representatives will be examining problems associated with the probability of exceeding standards of benzopyrene in the product, also officials will study issues of sterilization and transparency of supplies.
"The Russian experts pointed out that it is impossible to trace how fish from the ship gets into a can and on buyers' tables. These questions should be solved," the minister noted.
However, the entire fishing industry will not come to a standstill because of the ban.
According to the minister, the Latvian side was dissatisfied with the Russian audit. The reason is that the Russian side conducted inspections of only four fish plants, while a ban on exports to Russia was imposed on the whole sector.
On June 04, 2015, the Rosselkhoznadzor implemented a temporary ban on the import of seafood from Latvia and Estonia to the Russian Federation due to the level of benzopyrene in Latvian production prohibited in Russia.
