Russian vegetables are often shipped to Latvia via Poland, according to the Latvian Association of Agricultural Cooperatives.

Rolandas Feldmanis, the head of the association, stressed that its members have repeatedly expressed concern about this, as such imports are harmful to local agricultural producers.

The Latvian Food and Veterinary Service said it had recently received a complaint that traders were selling cucumbers from Russia and Belarus as Polish cucumbers, misleading consumers.

At the end of February, the Authority inspected the wholesale and retail businesses concerned and found that some of the wholesalers' product ranges did contain cucumbers from Russia and Belarus from Poland, but that the documents accompanying the shipments did not contain any irregularities regarding the origin of the cucumbers.

On 8 March, a ban on the import of various agricultural products and products from Russia and Belarus came into force in Latvia.