Illegal Russian cucumbers face crackdown by Lithuania

“We are carrying out laboratory tests to check the safety of these products,” she added, according to Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT.

The move follows claims by Lithuanian farmers that Russian-grown vegetables, mainly cucumbers and tomatoes, were being smuggled into Lithuania through neighboring Belarus and Poland with falsified origin documents, undermining local markets.

“Once goods enter the EU single market, it is much more difficult to control their movement. That is why we should seek to restrict the entry of these goods,” said Vice Minister of Agriculture Vytenis Tomkus.

In April, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda called for additional tariffs on Russian and Belarusian agricultural imports to make them “simply uncompetitive.”