Tarek Kabil, minister of trade and industry, announced in a press statement on Saturday that Russian authorities have agreed to lift the imposed ban on Egyptian potato exports from eight agricultural areas. He added that exporting from those areas will begin starting from 6 June.
The minister added that the decision is the culmination of negotiations held in Russia on the sidelines of the activities of the Egyptian-Russian joint committee held in Moscow in late May.
For his part, Nasser Hamed, head of the Egyptian Commercial Office in Moscow, said that the Russian side issued the decision of lifting the ban after the Egyptian side supplied Russia with the results of an analysis about the brown mould in some of the farms from which potatoes were exported to Russia. The analysis was carried out in response to a Russian request.
Nasser asserted that the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance confirmed the safety of the procedures for the cultivation and exporting of Egyptian potatoes, assuring that their quality meets Russian phytosanitary requirements and international standards.
In March, Russia banned the importation of potatoes from the governorates of Beheira and Minya due to the detection of brown mould in potatoes.
It was not the first brown mould was found in Egyptian potatoes.
Moreover, the Ministry of Trade and Industry previously announced that Egypt achieved a big boom in potato export rates to the Russian market during 2017.
It explained that the value of Egyptian potato exports reached $118.41m, up from with $54.4m in 2016, an increase of 160.64%.
That boom occurred after the state set phytosanitary regulations to fight potato diseases in response to a crisis of countries preventing the export of potatoes during 2015 after the discovery of the disease. Some countries, led by Russia, decided to prevent Egyptian potato imports.
