Russian Federation Agricultural Biotechnology Annual 2014
Russia continues registration of Genetically Engineered (GE) crops for imports of food and feed in accordance with existing Russian legislature. In September 2013, the Russian Government initiated legislation for the registration of GE crops for cultivation starting July 2014. However, in June 2014 the Government delayed implementation of this legislation by three years, to 2017. Given that the registration process is estimated to take 5-6 years, cultivation of GE crop in Russia cannot be expected before 2013-2024. The Ministry of Agriculture, the main body responsible for any seed registration has been very conservative on the cultivation of GE crops. Labeling and information for consumers on the presence of GE ingredients in food products is regulated by the technical regulations of the Customs Union (CU) on safety and labeling of food products. These regulations require that products sold in CU member states must be labeled if they contain the presence of over 0.9 percent of GE lines in food products. CU technical regulation for feed has not been adopted yet. However, feed sold in Russia is subject to Russian regulations that does not require labeling of GE feed, but does require registration of GE lines for use in feed, and requires registration of feed as GE feed if the presence of registered lines is over 0.9 percent and the presence of non-registered lines is over 0.5 percent.
