Russia will ban imports of Norwegian fish as of January 1, 2006 on health grounds

Thursday, March 4, 2021

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Russia will ban imports of Norwegian fish as of January 1, 2006 on health grounds, Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev said. "This [ban] has nothing to do with politics," he said. "Norway has become the largest exporter of farmed fish, salmon, cod and halibut to Russia," Gordeyev said. He said the concentration of heavy metals (cadmium and lead) in the last batch of Norwegian fish products exceeded the maximum permissible level by 10-20 times. "This is dangerous for people's health," the minister said. Gordeyev said that according to the Norwegian authorities, local veterinaries carried out only 12 tests on fish in 2004, adding that Norway had 727 companies producing 760,000 metric tons of fish annually. "According to our estimates, each company undergoes examination once in 70 years," he said. He added that Norway had failed to ensure effective control of fish quality. Tensions have recently arisen between the two countries over fishing in the Spitsbergen region Two Russian fishing boats, the Kapitan Gorbachev and the Dmitry Pokramovich, were detained by the Norwegian Coast Guard on October 24 and released October 28 after posting bail. The Norwegian Coast Guard had detained the trawlers near Medvezhy Island in the Barents Sea after the boats entered a 12-mile exclusive fishing zone without permission on October 24. Norwegian authorities accused the ships' crews of unauthorized fish reloading in Norway's territorial waters. These arrests came in the wake of a drama in mid-October involving the Elektron trawler, which the Norwegians pursued across the Barents Sea for five days after accusing the Russian crew of violating Norwegian fishing regulations.

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