The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development asked for a special allocation from the state budget of €827,790 for intensified food inspections.
The ministry plans to spend €72,000 top purchase official cars for food inspectors, the SITA newswire wrote. The money should cover the higher number of inspections for which the department decided after the imposition of the Russian ban on imports of certain commodities from European Union countries.
It assumes that Slovakia could become a target of increased inflows of food products from the surrounding countries and inspectors will check whether this does not involve illegal shipments, or items that could pose a health risk. These measures are proposed on the basis of an analysis of the impact of sanctions of the Russian Federation on the Slovak agricultural and food sector which the cabinet acknowledged and approved on October 15.
The additional funding should be sufficient for the period September to December 2014. Through the end of this year, food inspectors plan to inspect about 12,700 food shipments.
(Source: SITA)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
