Deputies heard the head of the Rosselkhoznadzor
The head of the Rosselkhoznadzor reported to the State Duma on the quarantine phytosanitary state of the country's territory. The risks of importing disease-infected plants and insect pests are high, because there are a lot of “quarantine objects” in those countries with which the Russian Federation is now actively developing trade, Sergei Dankvert said. The department considers it necessary to tighten the rules for the import of food into the country by private individuals. The government does not expect a shortage of vaccines and medicines for animals.
Photo: ru.wikipedia.org
For the first time, the deputies discussed the annual national report of the department responsible for combating pests of fields, orchards and orchards, as well as animal diseases. Mr. Dankvert said that in 2022 the area of pest-infested phytosanitary zones and quarantine zones has slightly decreased. But problems also arise with new territories: Ukraine hides that the corn beetle, which destroys up to 80% of corn crops, is spreading, and it is necessary “to prevent its penetration using pheromone traps,” the official continued.
Mr. Dankvert assessed the risks of importing pests and animal diseases as “large”, because a number of countries with which Russia actively trades today “have a fairly large number of such objects”: these are China, Turkey, and Iran … The main source of pests plants, according to him — America (North, Central and South).
The deputies had many questions. Yana Lantratova («SR») recalled the death of relic boxwood forests in the Krasnodar Territory, almost completely destroyed by pests brought from abroad during the Olympics in Sochi. “Were those who allowed this to be held accountable?” she asked.
Mr. Dankvert said that the Rosselkhoznadzor was powerless: “When boxwood was imported in preparation for the Olympics, we warned that it could harm in the future, but we were told that this was not a quarantine object, and if you didn’t let it through, we would sue, because that millions of dollars have been spent on acquiring these trees.” As a result, «the boxwood that was brought in, the pests did not eat, but ate the one that was nearby.» Mr. Dankvert did not specify who imported, who threatened to sue.
Vice Speaker Irina Yarovaya (“ER”) stated that “many biological developments of the US Department of Defense have a dual and direct aggressive purpose, including in relation to other countries”, and recalled the Pentagon project called “Insect Allies”, “which aims to solve the problem of the transfer of genetically modified viruses and pathogens by such insects.”
“How do you assess these risks and threats — after all, they are easy to disguise as natural foci of problems?” she asked. For some reason, Mr. Dankvert began by saying that “by coincidence, African swine fever and the marble bug came from Georgia, which has never existed, and now it is actively spreading.” Speaking generally about “atypical organisms”, he considers it right to do away with liberal customs rules that allow citizens to import several kg of meat and other food products, as well as sprouts of exotic plants in their suitcases. “In the US and Europe, you won’t even be able to bring a carton of milk; for one apple, a fine of up to a thousand dollars,” he said.
Independent MP Oksana Dmitrieva asked how independent Russia is in the production of vaccines for animals. Mr. Dankvert is optimistic: the concerns are understandable, especially since “many Western companies, when they begin to lose our market, heat up the situation,” assuring that Russia will be left without vaccines, but “Russia will not be left without vaccines.” “Our bioindustry began to dramatically increase the volume of supplies”, “where there was a dependence on imports of 70% — it became 50%, where it was 60% — it became 30%”, and for domestic animals “if there are no our vaccines, there will be vaccines from friendly countries,” the head of the Rosselkhoznadzor believes. The question of the quality of Russian vaccines and vaccines from friendly countries was not raised.
Dankvert admitted that there are big problems now at customs points, which are poorly equipped. In the USA, for example, there is a double control system: first, the goods are inspected where they are sent from, and then at the entrance. In Russia, according to the law, checks are only at the entrance. “The situation in Upper Lars (checkpoint on the border with Georgia) or Yarag-Kazmalyar (checkpoint on the border with Azerbaijan) cannot be improved in the near future,” the speaker stated. The agency wants to preliminarily inspect goods at points of departure, for planting material, the relevant changes have already been made to the laws, but “as for seeds, many of our large companies that import seeds are against it.”
Georgy Arapov (New People) asked if the Rosselkhoznadzor was going to add Sosnovsky's hogweed to the list of quarantine objects and start fighting it «at the federal level.» Mr. Dankvert replied that «Sosnovsky's hogweed is a different story», «we are trying to put it on the list of potentially dangerous quarantine objects within the EAEU, but it has not worked out yet.» The only region that fights against hogweed, according to him, is the Moscow region, and throughout the country as a whole, “there is a kind of forest protection — in summer people cannot enter the forests, fearing burns.”
“Where did the hogweed come from? » — the speaker Vyacheslav Volodin became interested. “Naturally, it was in the Caucasus, in Dagestan, but then our Soviet scientists took it and began to cross different species with each other” in the hope of using it as a silage, the speaker explained. He did not promise to raise the fight against cow parsnip to the federal level.
Oleg Nilov («SR») attacked the «two-legged palm weevils» who adulterate dairy products — and those who poison people with fake alcohol. «Let's prepare proposals to change the laws, up to criminal liability for those who add beef fat instead of milk or palm oil instead of vegetable oil!» — picked up the speaker.
But Mr. Dankvert made it clear in his closing remarks that the issue of food adulteration would not be easy to resolve. “Our people, it must be said, are very capable of falsification. They started catching palm oil — they switched to beef fat, and not only we, even our Belarusian colleagues, ”the official lamented, while in fact, according to the laws, there is no one main one on the quality problem in the country: the Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for milk production, but not for milk quality, Rosstandart registers the technical conditions that the product must comply with, Rospotrebnadzor checks compliance with these conditions, and the quality of raw materials is controlled by the Rosselkhoznadzor …