Russia will ban all fresh Norwegian salmon imports from January 1st 2006 because its vets say they have found dangerously high levels of lead and cadmium in the fish and Norway's monitoring system is not adequate.
Norway disputes the claims but failed today at a meeting in Moscow to dissuade Russia from extending a partial ban it imposed earlier this month to all fresh salmon imports, Sergei Dankvert, Russia's chief animal and plant safety officer said.
"We are not happy with the Norwegian system of monitoring heavy metal content in their products," he told Reuters. "We are now checking other Norwegian fish products and if we are not satisfied we will ban all fish imports from Norway including frozen fish."
Russia imposed a temporary ban on fish from four Norwegian farms this month. Norway is the world's biggest producer of salmon, and fish is the Nordic country's third most valuable export after energy and metals.
Now Russia, which has a growing appetite for fresh salmon and has imported 60 per cent more so far this year than last year from Norway, says it has found such high levels of the metals cadmium and lead that it would turn the fish into poison.
Norway says it monitors the fish, which can absorb the metals from fish feed used by farms, and has invited Russian vets to inspect its farms.