Russia has agreed to ease a ban on potato exports from eight farming areas in Egypt, allowing shipments to resume from June 6, Egyptian Trade Minister Tarek Kabil said in a statement on Saturday. The decision to partially lift restrictions came after Egyptian officials submitted test results requested by Moscow from some farms from which Russia had been receiving shipments, the statement said.
Russian authorities were "assured of the safety of the cultivation and export procedures of Egyptian potatoes and its quality, which meet the requirements of the Russian and International Sanitary and Phytosanitary standards," the statement said. Egypt, the world's biggest wheat importer, rejected a Russian wheat cargo for excessive levels of the common grain fungus ergot last week. The rejected cargo was the fourth shipment to be halted in recent weeks, though the first to be held up for ergot. The cargoes amount to about 250,000 tonnes of grains that GASC may now have to tap world markets for.
Russia suspended imports of fruit and vegetables from Egypt in 2016 after Egyptian quarantine inspectors rejected a 60,000-tonne Russian wheat shipment due to problems related to Cairo's policy over the ergot fungus.
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