At least 5 billion pieces of labeled ice cream will be delivered to stores by June 1

On May 19, the Kommersant newspaper wrote that almost 40% of Russian ice cream producers may not have time to organize labeling of their products by June 1 due to difficulties with the supply and installation of equipment. At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture does not expect an increase in prices or a shortage of ice cream after the entry into force of the requirements for mandatory labeling on June 1, 2021.

‘The shortage of ice cream with the introduction of mandatory labeling since June 1 is not expected. 5 billion pieces of ice cream, which has already been labeled, will appear on store shelves,’ said the official representative of the CATD.

According to him, now 84% of ice cream producers and almost all cheese producers are registered in the labeling system. The number of printing houses that are already ready to supply manufacturers with packaging with printed labeling codes completely exceeds the capacity for the production of ice cream and cheese in the country, he said.

The CATD also reminded that ice cream is a product of a long shelf life and manufacturers annually accumulate stocks of their products before high demand in the summer season.

‘This year, companies that started preparing for labeling late and are now several weeks late by June 1 will sell unlabeled ice cream produced before June 1 until they are fully ready. Thus, there will be a gradual replacement of unlabeled products with labeled products,’ said the representative of the CATD. He stressed that the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture and the CATD support producers, almost all technical issues have been resolved. Individual work is being carried out with companies that have started participating in the labeling project late.