MOSCOW/MINSK - Russia threatened on Wednesday to ban dairy supplies from Belarus if its neighbour continues exporting what it deems poor quality and unsafefoodstuffs.
The threat came during a dispute between Moscow and Minsk over the price for Russian gas sold to Belarus. Russia has used trade restrictions issued by its food safety watchdog when its relations with other countries worsened.
Belarus is the largest dairy supplier to Russia, which banned most Western food imports, including dairy, in 2014.
Russian state food safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor stressed the need to its Belarussian counterpart to take emergency measures to avoid supplies of dry dairy products of poor quality to Russia, it said in a statement on Wednesday.
The watchdog said it would have to impose restrictions on all or some dairy supplies from Belarus in case it registers these problems again.
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A Rosselkhoznadzor representative, contacted by Reuters, denied any political overtones behind the threats to Belarus.
Belarusian Agriculture Minister Leonid Zayats told reporters in Minsk that he saw no quality problems.
"This issue is made up. We will deal with these so-called accusations," Zayats said.
Minsk has supplied 304,000 metric tons of dairy products, including 56,000 metric tons of dry milk, to Russia so far this year.
