Ukraine expects to resume this spring egg exports to Israel, which were halted in January 2016, due to the Israelis` suspicions on possible salmonella contamination, head of the State Food Safety and Consumer Protection Service Volodymyr Lapa told a press conference.
He noted that the Israeli side requested that Ukraine inform them on the main points of its salmonella monitoring program, introduced earlier, as well as its last year`s results.
The State Food Safety Service on March 16 sent a respective letter to Israel, expecting a response within a couple of weeks.
”The ideal option for Ukraine is, of course, [re]opening of the Israeli market and resumption of exports. It is possible that our Israeli colleagues would like to visit us and see how this program is being implemented in practice; we would welcome them here. Anyway, we do hope that this issue will be resolved over ths spring,” Lapa said.
As UNIAN reported, in early 2016, Israel`s Agriculture Ministry suspended the supply of eggs of Ukrainian origin due to suspicions of Salmonella bacteria contamination. The exports were halted pending the research period.
Ukraine offered to test every batch of eggs supplied to Israel to remove fears and have restrictions lifted.
In January, the Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry said that Ukrainian products had not been contaminated with salmonella, based on the results of the conducted research.
