Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The Agency for Quarantine and Plant Protection denied information about dangerous viruses in Uzbekistan’s tomatoes. This unverified data was published in several news channels on Telegram and was based on a story from the news block of one of the Kazakh TV channels.

To clarify the situation, agency staff contacted the Kazakh side and found out that there was no case of returning tomatoes from Uzbekistan due to the detection of brown wrinkle virus and other diseases in them. Also, the Kazakh side did not send any notification on this matter.

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, Ibragim Begasilov. However, he said in a telephone conversation that no brown wrinkle virus was found in 43 tons of imported tomatoes from Uzbekistan.

The agency notes that over the past period of 2023, the agency issued international phytosanitary certificates in accordance with the requirements of importing countries for the export of tomatoes from Uzbekistan to foreign countries in the amount of 24,147 tons (of which 14,424 tons - to Kazakhstan). At the same time, no notifications were received about the identification of non-compliances from the quarantine services of the importing countries.

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