Russia begins lifting EU vegetable ban as fears of infection ease

Moscow: Russia is ending a blanket ban on vegetable imports from the European Union put in place over fears of E. coli infection, starting with the Netherlands and Belgium, the nation's top consumer rights watchdog said on Tuesday.

Shipments of European vegetables to Russia were allowed to resume on Tuesday, the nation's top consumer rights watchdog said, following a 26-day ban intended to prevent an E. coli outbreak centred on Germany from spreading east. Germany reported one more death in the outbreak, taking the total to at least 47, but infections have declined significantly over recent weeks.

The EU has called Russia's ban disproportionate and the dispute has clouded Russia's talks on accession to the World Trade Organisation.

Meanwhile, in Sweden the Institute for Communicable Disease Control said an E.coli case it identified on Tuesday is the first in the country without any direct link to Germany. It said it remains unclear how the patient was infected.

The Russian consumer protection agency didn't say when imports of vegetables from other EU nations will resume, but added that the Czech Republic, Denmark, Lithuania, Spain and Poland are on the waiting list.

Russia and the EU have reached agreement on safety certification, and agency chief Gennady Onishchenko said that every shipment of vegetables must be accompanied by an individual certificates guaranteeing its safety.

Russia is the last major economy that isn't a member of the WTO, the international free-trade body, and accession to it is crucial to a broader partnership agreement the EU wants to establish with Russia.

Onishchenko said that Netherlands and Belgium were the first to be allowed to restart shipments because there have been no cases of infection among their residents and because Russia trusts their labs. He said that both nations are only allowed to send their homegrown vegetables to Russia.