Russia is planning to extend a ban on food imports from the European Union (EU) for an additional period of six months in response to extended sanctions by EU over the Ukraine crisis.
The extended ban may also include flowers and chocolate, Gazeta.ru reported citing Russian food watchdog spokesman Aleksey Alekseenko.
"Many other countries are willing to supply us flowers, and in this case our industry in the area will begin to slowly recover should there be an embargo. Also, there have been calls for a long time to import flowers from Latin America directly rather than from the Netherlands," Alekseenko added.
So far, Russia restricts imports of fruit, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, milk and dairy from the US, EU, Australia, Canada and Norway which are valued at around $9bn, Reuters reported.
Russia is expected to extend the ban starting from early August.
Last year, EU and the US had imposed sanctions on Russia after it annexed Ukraine's Crimea region in March last year.
