Russia bans import of all raw vegetables from EU in wake of E.coli scare

Yelena Skrynnik, the country’s agriculture minister, insisted that Russia produced enough vegetables of its own to avoid any shortages and that price rises were not likely however. Russia imported vegetables worth the equivalent of more than 500 million pounds from the EU last year with shoppers in big cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg accounting for most sales. The European Commission said it would be urging Moscow to scale back the “disproportionate” ban as soon as possible but the Russian Foreign Ministry argued the ban was “a natural defensive measure.”

The man came as three British nationals in the UK had been disclosed to have been infected with E.coli, bringing the total number of cases in the country to seven.