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Russia to Lift Ban on EU Vegetables

   VOA News  June 10, 2011
   Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (L) and European Commission President
   Jose Manuel Barroso speak with journalists at a news conference. Russia
   agreed on Friday to lift a ban on vegetable imports from the European
   Union if the EU provides safety guarantee

Photo: Reuters

   Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (L) and European Commission President
   Jose Manuel Barroso speak with journalists at a news conference. Russia
   agreed on Friday to lift a ban on vegetable imports from the European
   Union if the EU provides safety guarantees, clearing the way to ending
   a row over a fatal outbreak of E.coli in Europe, June 10, 2011

   Russia says it will lift its ban on European Union vegetables imposed
   in the wake of the deadly E. coli outbreak.
   Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and EU Commission chief Jose Manuel
   Barroso made the joint announcement Friday following a two-day
   Russia-EU summit in the central Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod.
   The EU is to provide Moscow with documents certifying the vegetables'
   safety.
   German public health officials say new data show that contaminated
   sprouts are the source of the outbreak, which has killed at least 30
   people and sickened nearly 3,000 others. All but one of the deaths and
   the majority of those infected have been in Germany.
   The head of Germany's national disease control center said Friday the
   pattern of the outbreak points to the sprouts as the source.
   Health officials initially blamed the bacterial infection on Spanish
   cucumbers and other vegetables and then spread the blame to other
   European countries, costing EU farmers millions of dollars as produce
   was left to rot in fields and warehouses. Russia is one of the EU's
   largest markets for vegetables and other produce.
   German authorities are now lifting the warning against eating
   cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce, but they say the crisis is not over
   and people should not eat bean sprouts.
   Russian officials gave no specific timeframe for resuming vegetable
   imports from the European Union, saying it depends on how quickly the
   EU sends the documents. The EU has promised to send the safety
   certificates in the next two days.
   E. coli symptoms include stomach cramps, diarrhea, fever, vomiting, and
   in extreme cases, kidney failure and death.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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