USDA GAIN Report on Agribiotechnology in Russia

An annual GAIN (Global Agricultural Information Network) report on agriculture biotechnology in Russia has been released by the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service. The report relates the regulatory history of the country including the continuous registration of GM crops for imports of food and feeds. There is an existing de-facto ban on cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops while the draft of the government resolution that allows registration of GE crops for release into the environment (and cultivation) has not been adopted.

According to the Report, several technical regulations of the Customs Union (CU) on product safety came to force on July 1, 2013 which confirmed that in the CU member states, labelling of the presence of over 0.9 percent of GE lines in food products is mandatory.  Tthe Russian government adopted on April 24, 2012 the Comprehensive Program for Development of Biotechnology in the Russian Federation through 2020 (BIO 2020). Imports of products containing biotech ingredients, such as corn and soybeans and their by-products, have slowed down, due to Russia's increased domestic production of corn and soybeans rather than due to any change in biotech policy.

Details on this Report can be viewed at http://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/Agricultural%20Biotechnology%20Annual_Moscow_Russian%20Federation_7-15-2013.pdf