The ruling coalition in Latvia has reached an agreement on introducing a ban on the import of Russian and Belarusian grain into the country.
This was announced on January 29 at a joint press conference by the Prime Minister of Latvia Evika Silina, the Minister of Agriculture Armands Krause and the representative of the Sejm Andris Shuvaev.
At the same time, Latvian Finance Minister clarified that it is currently impossible to ban the transit of grain through the territory of the republic. This would be an illegal decision according to EU laws.
At the same time, in the future, enhanced control of grain transit will be introduced, which will be carried out by the Food and Veterinary Service of Latvia. They will assess the quality, safety and origin of products. This is important to determine whether the grain is Russian or stolen from the occupied territories of Ukraine.
The Minister of Agriculture also noted that Ukraine has scientific methods and a database with the help of which EU member states will be able to determine whether grain was grown in Russia or Ukraine.
The coalition also agreed that companies using grain of Russian origin in their production will not be able to qualify for agricultural support programs.
It is currently difficult to predict the financial consequences of the import ban. At the same time, Latvia polititians expressed hope that this decision would also encourage the Baltic countries and the EU to adopt a similar initiative.
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