Turkey has decided to tighten the criteria for the supply of Russian agricultural products, said Andrey Sizov, director of the SovEcon analytical center, Fontanka news website reports.

In his opinion, the restrictions could be related to the ban on the supply of tomatoes from Turkey.

“Yes, it's probably a matter of allowing Turkish tomatoes to enter the Russian market,” he said.

According to him, from now on, Russian companies will need to get invoices certified by Turkish officials.

“Now, when making deliveries to Turkey, Russian companies need to certify invoices at Turkish consulates and embassies. How much of this is a technical measure is still unknown, since it has just started,” Sizov said.

The second restriction is that only a limited number of suppliers from Russia will be admitted to the Turkish market.

“The second measure is that Turkey says it will make a list of authorized suppliers who will be able to supply agricultural products from Russia. This involves sunflower oil, wheat, and peas. This measure is in response to the fact that Russia has accredited a limited number of Turkish suppliers for deliveries to the Russian market. There is no official confirmation of these restrictions. It’s not a fact that this is happening. The Ministry of Economy of Turkey has not officially commented on the situation,” said Sizov, noting that this list has not yet been provided by Turkey.

Russia banned the import of tomatoes and a number of other agricultural products from Turkey on January 1, 2016. The measure was imposed after the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian Su-24 aircraft that was in Syrian airspace in November 2015. The list of products banned from Russia was subsequently reduced as relations with Turkey returned to normal, but the ban on the import of tomatoes is still in effect. In late September, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said that the ban on the import of Turkish tomatoes to Russia could be lifted in 2017.

  Turkey, Russia

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