Lithuania is tightening inspections of Russian grain moving through the port of Klaipėda after some stevedoring companies resumed handling the cargo, Agriculture Minister Kęstutis Mažeika said.
Mažeika said he had instructed the State Food and Veterinary Service to inspect food grain of Russian origin transiting Lithuania, a procedure that had not previously been required.
The service has already taken samples from a grain shipment at a customs warehouse in Klaipėda for laboratory testing in France to verify its origin. Results are expected in two to three weeks.
Aistė Prielgauskaitė, a service spokeswoman, said authorities were investigating whether the grain, declared as Russian, could instead have originated in Ukraine and been transported through Russia’s Kaliningrad region.
“The issue is whether the Russian grain being presented is of Ukrainian origin,” she said. “It might not be Russian as declared. It could be stolen.”
