Azerbaijan suspends import of animal products from several countries over WHO warning

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan's Food and Safety Agency has suspended the import of a number of animal products from several countries after the World Health Organization’s warning, the agency has reported.

The agency has imposed a temporary ban on the import of all types of live small cattle and livestock, their genetic material into Azerbaijan from Bulgaria’s Blagoevgrad region, and poultry and poultry products from the entire territory of Korea and Ukraine’s Kherson region.

The ban has to do with the WHO’s warning about an outbreak of highly pathogenic disease “bird flu” in Ukraine’ Kherson region and Korea’s Chungcheongnam-do province, as well as the disease “Bluetang” in Bulgaria’s Blagoevgrad region.

The State Customs Committee will take relevant measures to strengthen control over vehicles arriving or passing through Azerbaijan from Ukraine, Korea and Bulgaria.

The Azerbaijani Food Safety Agency was established in 2017 and is a central executive authority, which oversee the regulation of food safety standards, risk assessment, official registration of food products and their packaging materials, issue of food safety certificates to exported food products. It is also responsible for state control over food safety and protection of rights of food product consumers at all stages of food supply chain, including food production, supply, packaging, storage, transportation and trading, use in catering and service sector, utilization and disposal as well as implementation and regulation of state policy in the aforementioned areas.