In a letter of 22 December the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance has informed the Norwegian Food Safety Authorities that import restrictions on all fresh fish from Norway will be introduced on 1 January 2006. This comes as a follow up of the limited import restrictions on salmon introduced on 5 December. Their justification for this measure is analyses performed by the Russian Authorities, indicating that the maximum residual levels of cadmium and lead had been exceeded in samples of salmon.

The Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs is surprised by the measures announced by the Russian Authorities and by the Russian allegations of high levels of heavy metals.

The Norwegian legislation on contaminants in food is harmonised with the current EU legislation on the subject. The levels of cadmium and lead in Norwegian farmed salmon and other fish are monitored in ongoing national surveillance programmes which have documented consistently low levels of these heavy metals, significantly below the residual levels.

The findings reported by the Russian Authorities deviates substantially from the levels known from Norwegian surveillance. However, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority continues the dialog with their Russian counterparts to seek a solution.