Moscow, July 20 - Russia has resumed issuing permits for Indian rice imports banned from May 1 due to discovery of a banned pesticide in shipments, animal and plant health watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said on Friday.
Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement that all shipments of rice from India would be accepted after July 20 if accompanied by certificates confirming their safety. This was agreed at talks with Indian authorities held earlier this month.
India is one of the main suppliers of rice to Russia.
Moscow used to import 400,000-500,000 tonnes of rice per year intil it imposed a tariff of 70 euros ($96.66) per tonne in April 2005. Imports shrank to 300,000-350,000 tonnes after that, analysts have said.
At the beginning of December, Russia stopped all rice imports on health grounds but restarted them later under stricter control via a reduced number of ports.
Also this year, the government set a seasonal import tariff of 120 euros from March 13 to May 31 and from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31 to protect domestic producers.
Russia harvested an all-time high rice crop of 685,000 tonnes in 2006, compared with 575,000 tonnes in 2005. Of this, top rice grower Razgulay produced 375,000 tonnes, up from 133,000 tonnes in 2005.