Russia’s agriculture oversight agency Rosselkhoznadzor said on Friday, March 2, that it will suspend all meat imports from EU nations unless they provide plans for monitoring the safety of their exports by March 31.

The agency released a statement listing several cases of what it said were exports of substandard meat and fish from EU countries to Russia last year.

The statement, quoted by the Associated Press said that despite Russian calls for the countries to toughen their sanitary controls, “individual consignments of animal products arriving in Russia from Europe in 2007 also do not meet Russian veterinary requirements.”

Rosselkhoznadzor chief Sergei Dankvert has written to deputy EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Paola Testori Coggi requesting that safety controls be strengthened, the statement said. The letter warned that a ban would be applied to countries that fail to present a plan by the end of the month for monitoring meat hygiene in 2007.

Russia has barred meat imports from Poland since late 2005, citing health concerns. The ban led Warsaw to veto the start of talks on a new EU-Russia partnership agreement that could address some of Europe’s concerns about oil and gas supplies from Russia.

EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou has described the ban on Polish meat imports as unjustified, and has urged Russia to lift it.

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