Russia will temporary suspend imports of fruit and vegetables from Egypt from Sept. 22, Russia's food safety watchdog said on Friday, hours after Cairo rejected a Russian wheat shipment.

The move came after Egyptian quarantine inspectors rejected a 60,000-tonne Russian wheat shipment due to problems related to Cairo's policy over the ergot fungus.

"We are talking, among other things, about citrus fruits, tomatoes and potatos," Yuliya Shvabauskene, deputy head of the Rosselkhoznadzor service, told Interfax news agency.

The ban is being imposed due to insufficient work of Egyptian phytosanitary system, she said, adding that Rosselkhoznadzor had found quarantined items in Egyptian supplies multiple times this year.

The watchdog met officials at the Egyptian embassy to Russia on Friday to tell them that the decision would be in place until an unspecified meeting between Russian and Egyptian experts. Rosselkhoznadzor did not answer repeated calls from Reuters.

"This is going to lead to huge losses for export companies," said one Egyptian fruit-and-vegetables trader. He said Russia is the second most important market for Egyptian fruit and vegetable exporters after Saudi Arabia.

"The season is supposed to start at the beginning of October and all the companies have big contracts with Egyptian farmers. This short amount of time won't allow us to secure other markets," he added.

Russia bought around $150 million of Egyptian citrus products in 2015, about 13 percent of its total citrus imports.

Moscow has a history of using threats and limiting imports in trade disputes, but Cairo's policy over the ergot fungus has created a headache for all of Egypt's wheat suppliers, not Russia only.

Moscow said last week it was seeking talks with Egypt, its top buyer, over Cairo's failure to approve Russian wheat shipments since tightening its regulations on ergot, a common grains fungus, in late August.

Egypt was unable to garner a single offer from wheat suppliers at its state grain tender on Friday, forcing it to cancel the tender and raising renewed questions about its ability to tap global wheat markets while maintaining a ban on ergot. – Reuters