MOSCOW, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Russia will partially lift its ban on the import of tomatoes from Turkey from Nov. 1, the Russian government said Friday.
An official statement said imports will be allowed "within limits" to be approved by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Russia imposed a ban on the import of Turkish grapes, apples, pears, strawberries, tomatoes, onions, shallots, cauliflowers, broccoli, cucumbers, poultry meat, salt and cloves on Jan. 1, 2016, after the Turkish air force shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian-Turkish border in November 2015.
Turkey said the plane had violated its airspace, which Moscow denies.
The ban was lifted on all those products except tomatoes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologized for the incident in June 2016.
On Saturday, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, who is also co-chair of the Russia-Turkey Intergovernmental Commission, said Moscow and Ankara had agreed that Turkey would be allowed to export 50,000 tons of tomato to Russia this year, according to media reports.
Russian officials said Moscow will not allow large imports for fear of affecting domestic tomato growers, who have taken bank loans and increased their output to substitute for imports from Turkey, a former major supplier.
