Russia gives green light to import of Turkish tomatoes

By Murat Temizer and Emre Gurkan Abay

MOSCOW (AA) - The Russian Ministry of Agriculture has proposed to allow Turkey to export up to 50,000 tons of its tomatoes to Russia on an annual basis, Arkady Dvorkovich, deputy prime minister of Russia said Wednesday.

"Importing does not include the tomato growing season in Russia. In the proposal, imports are mentioned from the end of this year to the beginning of the next year," he said.

Dvorkovich told reporters at the Russian Energy Week forum in Moscow, that the Russian Ministry of Agriculture had forwarded the proposal for tomato imports from Turkey to them in a statement.

Earlier, Russia's Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev said in an interview with Russian state-run Rossiya 24 TV channel that the Russian market would be opened to Turkish tomatoes, but the volume of imports would be low.

The Russian Energy Week forum in Moscow, of which Anadolu Agency is a media partner, is running from Oct. 3 to 7 under the theme 'energy for global growth'.