The news that Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) bacteria was allegedly found in cucumbers imported from Spain has resulted in reduced export of Macedonian cucumbers at foreign markets, claim early vegetables traders in the country's southeast.

According to them, the export of cucumbers in the countries of former Yugoslavia has plummeted in the past few days.

"Our partners from Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia have lowered orders due to the reduced consumption, whereas export to these countries has stopped in the last three days", say representatives of "Plodovi-Fruktus", a branch of Croatian company "Agrokor" in southeast Macedonia.

Traders say the Russian market could be the way out, due to the country's ban for important of vegetables from the European Union. Measures are being undertaken for redirecting of export to Russia, thus significantly reducing consequences caused by the EHEC emergence in Germany.