Georgian delegation led by head of the National Wine Agency at the Ministry of Agriculture will visit Moscow next week to discuss with the Russian authorities lifting ban on import of Georgian products to Russia.

The delegation will meet on February 4 Gennady Onishchenko, head of the Russian state consumer protection agency, RosPotrebNadzor, which ordered ban on import of Georgian wines, mineral waters and other products in 2006 citing consumer safety concerns.

“We are sure that there are no problems with quality… The Georgian products are in conformity with standards and deserve to be back [on the Russian market],” Levan Davitashvili, head of the National Wine Agency who will lead the delegation, said on January 28.

Meanwhile in Moscow, Onishchenko told Russian news agency, Interfax, on January 28 that upcoming talks might lead to concrete agreement. “There will be no many rounds [of talks] if we have a business-like conversation” next Monday, he said of upcoming meeting.

The Georgian delegation will also include officials from National Food Agency at the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as representative from the state-owned Georgian Fruits and Vegetables Export Company.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on December 20, 2012 that trade ties between the two countries, including import of Georgian products on the Russian market, should be “de-politicized”; next day Russia’s first deputy foreign minister, Andrey Denisov, said that from the political point of view the issue of entry of the Georgian products on the Russian market was resolved, but “only purely technical procedures” were remaining.