Citing food safety violations, Russia’s Food Safety Inspectorate (Rosselkhoznadzor) has suspended the importation of dairy products from Armenia as of April 5.

The agency says its specialists examined various Armenian dairy products and revealed insufficient monitoring of the production process.

“According to preliminary information received from the Armenian side, the milk processing enterprises of Armenia use raw materials produced by enterprises of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in respect of which restrictive measures have been introduced by the Rosselkhoznadzor,” the agency reported in a March 28 statement.

At a meeting today between the Russian and Armenian Food Safety Inspectorate, the Russian specialists said the Armenian agency “is not able to guarantee the safety of dairy products exported to the Russian market.”

Rosselkhoznadzor announced that a possible resumption of dairy imports from Armenia depends on whether the Armenian agency can eliminate the revealed violations.

“The nature of the identified violations also indicates the lack of proper control by the (Armenian-ed.) state veterinary service over the activities of dairy processing enterprises, which raises the risk of low-quality and unsafe products being imported into Russia,” Rosselkhoznadzor reported.