To clarify the situation, the agency's employees contacted the Kazakh side and found out that there was no case of return of tomatoes from Uzbekistan due to the detection of brown fruit wrinkling virus and other diseases in them. Also, the Kazakh side did not send any notification about this.

At the same time, negotiations were held between the quarantine services of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Kazakh media referred to the words of the head of the regional territorial inspection of the phytosanitary service of Turkestan region Ibrahim Begasilov. However, he said in a telephone conversation that no brown wrinkling virus was detected in 43 tons of imported tomatoes from Uzbekistan.

The agency notes that over the past period of 2023, the agency has issued international phytosanitary certificates in accordance with the requirements of importing countries for the export of tomatoes from Uzbekistan to foreign countries with a volume of 24,147 tons (of which 14,424 tons - to Kazakhstan). At the same time, there were also no notifications of nonconformities from the quarantine services of importing countries.

For the release of safe and proven products to the world market, samples are taken from each batch, which are examined in the Central Phytosanitary Laboratory. The samples are subjected to a special polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for 8 hours, including for the detection of the brown wrinkling virus of tomato fruits, the department stressed.