The Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) blocked the entry by sea of two batches of infected citrus. At the "Kavkaz" port, in the Krasnodar Territory, the ship "Olympic" was stopped with a load of 49.63 tonnes of Turkish mandarins. Inspectors reportedly found live larvae of the Mediterranean fruit fly.
The cargo was sent back to Ankara together with that of the ship "Ammari", which carried 20 tonnes of mandarins and had been stopped for the same reason.
Since the beginning of 2015, a total of 16 batches weighting more than 345 tonnes have been refused entry after failing to pass the phytosanitary controls. On Monday, in the port of Novorossiysk, 8 tonnes of pomegranates were also blocked after the detection of the pest.
