Ukraine not to ban imports of EU vegetables over E. coli outbreak

Ukraine will not impose a ban on imports of EU vegetables because the country is taking measures to prevent contamination of E. coli bacteria, the head of the State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service said on Monday.

"Today we cope with the situation, so a complete ban on imports of agricultural products of animal and plant origin for our state is premature and inappropriate," Anatoly Ponomarenko told a press conference.

Earlier Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said Ukraine will strengthen border control on the imports of vegetables from the European Union.

Europeans began to abandon the mass consumption of vegetables in June following the E. coli outbreak, which has so far killed 38 people, mostly in Germany, and sickened over 3,000 others.

Scientists believed the possible source of contamination were tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce. Later it turned out that the deadly outbreak was triggered by vegetable sprouts grown in northern Germany.

Cases of E. coli infection, which causes bloody stools and serious kidney damage, were reported in 14 European countries, the United States and Canada. Virtually all the victims either live in Germany or traveled there recently.

Source: Xinhua

 

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FreshPlaza: Fruit and vegetables keeping setting new price records in Ukraine

HILLSBOROUGH — Ask Nancy Rabinowitz what she and her husband, Paul, are planting in their garden, and she?ll pull out a neatly printed plan, complete with illustrations.

Tomatoes, melons and zucchini are among their choices. The plot itself is one of about 200 at the new Duke Farms Community Garden, which opened earlier this spring to gardeners who registered and won a parcel through a lottery.

?We had a very large garden at our house, but what?s happened over the last 10 years is the trees have grown up to a point where they block the sun,? said Paul Rabinowitz. ?It became very frustrating. We got sun until mid-May, but when the leaves were all there, forget it.?

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