Mercury is not in the milk
Instead, it is suggested to introduce a system of "digital marking" promoted by the Ministry of industry and trade. While the project of withdrawal of finished products from the scope of electronic veterinary certification is in the stage of public discussion, the DairyNews appealed to the participants of the dairy market for comments.
The introduction of the system was expected since July 1. Earlier EVC has been postponed for six months and at the moment the authorities are sure that there will be no further postponement.
In the Ministry of agriculture they believe that the majority of regions is ready to implement obligatory electronic veterinary certification, and are confident that EVC will introduce traceability of products, will protect consumers from substandard and potentially dangerous products and will clean the market from falsified products, closing the access to it by dishonest manufacturers.
On June 4 it became known that Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak discussed the issue of postponing the introduction of the electronic veterinary certification system (EVC) "Mercury", the exclusion of processed food products from the action of this system and its replacement by labeling with representatives of food manufacturers. Later, the Head of the Ministry of industry and trade Denis Manturov in the margins of the forum Russian Retail Week said that the abolition of EVC for finished products is decided. This statement was not confirmed by the Rosselkhoznadzor, stressing that there are no official documents on this issue.
Many participants of the dairy industry have already invested a lot of money into integration with the EVC system. There was only one thing - to launch it officially since July 1 with one clause - "in a gentle mode for the enterprises of dairy industry". Now the situation is that dairy products can be excluded from the chain of traceability, at the insistence of supporters of the other system of digital marking hundreds of times more costly, said the Head of the Dairy Union of Russia (RSPMO) Ludmila Manitskaya.
– It is obvious that the proposed "digital marking" will not achieve the main goal— transparency – laid down in the system "Mercury". Moreover, the new marking assumes the principle of registration for each unit of goods, each chocolate glazed curd bar, each pack of yogurt. This, in the opinion of the business community, is possible to be provided with the equipment different from the one that provides traceability via "Mercury", – said the Executive Director RSPMO Lyudmila Manitskaya.
The expert believes that the introduction of new levers of regulation of traceability for dairy products at this stage will worsen the crisis situation in the industry, will lead to ruin, and will give impetus to the development of falsification and smuggling.
The General Director of "Prosto moloko-Agro" Gumer Zakirov notes that there are shortcomings in the functioning of the "Mercury" system, which must be eliminated.
– From the point of view of simplification of work, the exclusion of finished dairy products from EVC is a correct measure. There are problems in the certification mechanism, it would be nice to introduce a system for milk as raw materials, and then for finished products, - says Zakirov. The expert adds that the market is filled with various kinds of low-quality products and hopes that “Mercury” will help to fight the falsification, and will not be a bureaucratic burden.
According to Deputy Head of the Rosselkhoznadzor Nikolay Vlasov, it is necessary to work out both "Mercury" and the marking system of the Ministry of industry and trade.
- The system of the Ministry of industry and trade should cover many sectors, or include a number of systems that perform a number of similar functions in their fields. “Mercury” will be transferring its data to the marking system, its huge advantage is that it works with cash registers - that's what we wanted to do, but didn't take on because of the huge costs. The risks that we see are common to both systems - the threat of failure, the fall of the Internet. A big advantage of the marking system is the permissive nature, it is possible to send data before shipment, it is possible to do it after, – said the Deputy Head of the Rosselkhoznadzor.
New technical difficulties that can be brought by "Mercury" are expected by other participants in the dairy market. As it was told to The DairyNews by Lydia Tomshina, a zootechnician of LLC "Pobeda", the "Mercury" system for the enterprise has been already introduced and they did not notice any changes to the procedures for the supply of milk. But there are additional operations at shipment and the increasing dependence on technology and the human factor.
As an enterprise that is already working in the "Mercury" system, JSC "State Farm named after Lenin" has something to say. Deputy General Director for animal husbandry Danila Kozlov expressed the opinion that in fact the EVC is a fairly complex bureaucratic system, and its implementation will create an additional burden for enterprises, especially for processors.
- “Mercury” will increase the cost of production, the number of people who participate in it, but will not bring tangible benefits and certainly will not affect the amount of defective products on the market, – says Danila Kozlov.
On the other hand, a number of experts actively supported the idea of the project to withdraw finished dairy products from the EVC system. In particular, Marina Balabanova, Vice-President for corporate relations of Danone in Russia, notes that the marking system can be an alternative that would provide traceability without risks, which may be brought by "Mercury" that offers a lot of unnecessary things.
We will remind that Danone and PepsiCo were the biggest opponents of the introduction of EVC for finished dairy products from the very beginning.
– We do not understand why it is necessary to have such a complicated system with a permissive nature to ensure traceability, if our products are safe, - says Marina Balabanova.
Amendments to the order on EVC regarding the exclusion of finished dairy products from the scope of the document were supported by Soyuzmoloko, whose members are Danone and PepsiCo. The situation was commented by Andrey Danilenko, Chairman of the National Union of milk producers:
- Over the past six years, we have repeatedly provided evidence on the absence of the need for veterinary certification of finished products and the presence of serious risks of collapse in the industry. We are grateful that the business opinion was listened to, and small farms and factories, as well as retail outlets will not be forced to leave the market. This gives us hope for building an even more effective dialogue and successful joint work with the state.
Executive Director of the “Magnit” trade network Olga Naumova said that among the major suppliers the readiness for EVC is about 70%, for small producers the readiness is about 40%.
- We are interested in EVC, for us it is cost reduction. We are ready to support the formation of a chain of a wider range of suppliers in every possible way, – commented Olga Naumova.
Director of Ufa city dairy plant Ildar Fayzullin approved the decision on the withdrawal of finished products from the system of veterinary certification. The expert drew attention to the fact that today the introduction of EVC at medium and small enterprises requires significant time costs, including the ones relating to complexity of programming. Perhaps, large enterprises have long been ready for EVC, but it is more reasonable to introduce a transition period during which everyone could understand how to work in this system, stated Fayzullin.
We will remind that the public discussion of the project on the withdrawal of finished dairy products from the EVC system will last until June 27.
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