The UK to lift the ban on Japanese food imports

After several countries have recently eased restrictions on Japanese food products, the UK government has announced the lifting of Japanese food import restrictions, established after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. 23 Japanese agricultural products from Fukushima and several other prefectures are currently under import restrictions, but beginning with the spring of 2022, products will undergo a health check for radioactive materials while the UK government concluded that lifting import restrictions will not affect domestic consumers.

Belarus to ban Western food imports from 2022

The Belarusian government has recently published a long list of food products like meat, dairy products, confectionery or vegetables to be banned from import from the EU, US, Canada and several other countries from 1st of January 2022. For at least six months, importers, manufacturers and retailers from Belarus would replace their stocks with local products or with food supplies from friendly countries. Belarus` decision is a retaliation towards the banned countries for putting pressure on president Lukashenko’s regime, for political reasons.

India suspends trading of several agricultural products

Trading of several agricultural commodities, including crude palm oil, soybean, wheat, mustard seeds and similar derivates has been announced this December to be suspended for one year. Ongoing contracts will be allowed to be fulfilled but new trades cannot be signed, the reason behind the new rule being the motivation to help cool down domestic prices which have been increasing for the past few months. Market players are concerned that limiting future stocking of commodities will lead to limited success, in the short term, instead of a long-run solution.