CHISINAU, Dec. 13 (TASS) – Moldova has frozen talks on lifting the ban on plant products’ supplies to Russia at the government level, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vladimir Bolea said in an interview with the TV8 TV Channel.

"Most probably, we need to see when the decision will be made at the level of our government that we start talking about import, export [to Russia - TASS], and so on. Such decisions are not taken by a minister; this should be done at the government level," Bolea said. The Moldovan government "is not interested" in such contacts at the moment, he noted.

The problem is currently being tackled at the expert level between representatives of Russian and Moldovan food safety regulators, the Minister said. Fifty-three Moldovan companies, main apple producers, have received the permit to resume exports to Russia at the moment after inspections, he added.