The Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhodnadzor) will allow the import of Dutch seed potatoes. These imports concern the batches of seed potatoes mentioned on the Dutch Potato Organization's (NAO) list.
As in previous years, exporters could register batches of seed potatoes intended for export to Russia at the NAO. This registration was to have been done in late 2018.
In December of that year, Rosselkhodnadzor inspectors sampled batches on this list. These batches were in storage in the Netherlands. The samples were tested in laboratories in Russia.
According to Rosselkhodnadzor, the laboratory found brown rot in a sample from a batch of seed potatoes from the Dutch town of Anna Paulowna. For that reason, only the batches of seed potatoes from that destination will be excluded from exportation.
Since then, the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) has done an intensive investigation into the growers in Anna Paulowna. This study concerned the batches of seed potatoes appeared on the Russian list. According to the NAO, the NVWA did not find any brown rot in the samples taken.