Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajić said today that the export of Serbian apples to the Russian market is not compromised but that a more stringent control of exports and certificates is planned.

Ljajić said to RTS that there was a problem in communication between the Russian Ministry of Agriculture and the Serbian Embassy in Moscow. He explained that documents which were delivered on time were only detected by the Russian partners a few days later.

The second reason for the misunderstanding was that there was suspicion that an exporter attempted to falsify our country’s certificate.

“We have no reason to hide anything, there was unprecedented media interest in the matter and now that we announced that there are no problems, there is not a single paragraph about it in the newspapers,” said Ljajić.

According to him, we agreed on preventive measures with the Russian Ministry in order to prevent abuse.

“Our Ministry of Agriculture agreed with the Russian Ministry that starting March 2, the Russian side will receive scanned phytosanitary certificates in advance so that it can check if the certificated were truly issued in Serbia,” said the Minister.

Commenting on the statement of the Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Chepurin that the value of exports of agri-food products to the Russian market will reach 500 million RSD in the upcoming year, Ljajić said that the precondition for this would be the stabilization of the relations between the EU and Russia.

“The strong Russian market suites us. We are not taking advantage of the sanctions rather we are using the benefits of the free trade agreement with the Russian Federation,” said Ljajić.