"Peasants' Parliament": Imports of Belarusian and Russian products should be completely banned

The association "Farmers' Parliament" welcomes the amendments adopted by the government to the Agriculture and Rural Development Law, which partially prohibit the import of agricultural and animal feed products from Russia and Belarus for consumption in Latvia. However, this ban is not complete and does not address the problem of all types of agricultural, animal feed, and food products of Russian and Belarusian origin in general, therefore "Farmers' Parliament" calls for additional amendments to the Agriculture and Rural Development Law.

Juris Lazdins, Chairman of the Board of the Farmers' Council: "Although the European Union (EU) is currently considering the possibility of increasing customs duties on agricultural products from Russia and Belarus, this only partially addresses the issue of the aggressor countries' products entering the EU. The import ban should apply not only to individual agricultural and animal feed products of Russian or Belarusian origin, but to all types of animal feed raw materials, as well as to food products in general. The import of Russian and Belarusian products from other EU countries should also be banned."

The ban on the import of agricultural products currently does not apply to molasses, sugar beet pulp, sunflower seeds and other products.

Data from the Ministry of Agriculture shows that in the first 10 months of last year, imports of Russian agricultural and feed products into Latvia amounted to 280 million euros. In total, 90 percent of the total imports of Russian agricultural products into Latvia were made up of four product groups: animal feed, cereals, peas, and rapeseed oil.

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