Russia may lift ban on EU vegetable imports

Russia may lift its ban on fresh vegetable imports from all European Union (EU) states on Monday if no new cases of E. coli infection are reported, health officials said Friday. Russia banned vegetable imports from the EU in early June following an outbreak of a highly virulent strain of the E. coli bacteria that has killed some 40 people in Europe. The ban has been gradually lifted as measures have been taken to prevent the infected vegetables from supplying to Russia. So far, more than 10 countries have been allowed to resume their vegetable exports to Russia. Five EU countries -- Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia and Slovenia -- are still waiting for Russia's sanitary watchdog's permits to sell vegetables to Russia, said Gennady Onishchenko, Russia's chief sanitary inspector. Russia is the EU's largest market for vegetable exports. It annually purchases 1.1 million tons of vegetables, worth 600 million euros (858 million U.S. dollars) from the 27-nation bloc, accounting for a quarter of the EU's total vegetable exports.