Ministry of industry and trade: the terms of the experiment on the labeling of dairy products have not been determined yet
In July there was published a draft resolution of the Russian government, according to which the experiment on the labeling of certain types of dairy products was to be held in the period from September 1, 2018 to December 31, 2019. The document has not been approved so far.
"The relevant draft decree of the government of the Russian Federation on the experiment on labeling by means of identification of dairy products is currently developed by the Ministry of industry and trade and is being coordinated with the interested Federal Executive authorities, the government will determine the timing of the voluntary experiment", said the representative of the Ministry of industry and trade.
He also added that the list of specific types of dairy products for the experiment has not been approved yet. According to the previously published document, it is planned to label milk, except raw milk, cream, milk and cream powder, butter, butter pastes, ghee, spreads and melted butter-vegetable mixtures, milk fat. In addition, it is planned to apply labeling on cheese, cheese products and cottage cheese, condensed milk and cream, fermented dairy products (kefir, yogurt and others), whey. "It is planned that all interested companies, both manufacturers and other participants of the commodity distribution chain, including wholesale and retail link will be able to take part in it", added the representative of the Ministry of industry and trade.
In turn, the representative of Danone noted that the participating companies and the operator of the labeling system have already started the work on the first stage of the pilot project. "Before the direct labeling of products starts, a number of preparatory activities will be carried out, including research, provision of technical solutions and search for equipment, development of principles of accounting and coding of goods in the system, taking into account the characteristic features of the industry", he said. According to him, the task of the experiment is to understand how the labeling system can be applied to different types of dairy products, as well as to the variety of its packaging and various production lines.
In addition, according to the representative of Danone, it is important to understand how the dairy labeling system can be integrated into operational and logistics processes. He noted that only a small proportion of the company's products will be labelled within the pilot project. "The principle is not to cover the entire range and volume with the labelling, but to ensure that those technological lines where the labelling solution will be installed operate smoothly and without loss of speed, and that the products that came out of the conveyor are further smoothly shipped to warehouses, retail chains, to distributors - and further along the entire chain to the store shelf", he stressed.
According to Executive Director of Soyuzmoloko, Artem Belov, within the framework of the pilot project on milk labeling, it is extremely important to assess the costs of implementing the labeling system, as well as its share in the cost of production, since the dairy category is socially significant and the demand for it depends heavily on the price and purchasing power. "If we talk about the volume, about 2 thousand enterprises working in the processing sector will have to implement the system", he said.
Since 2016, the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union have introduced mandatory labeling of fur coats and fur products. Russia has also launched experiments on the labeling of drugs (will be mandatory since 2020) and cigarettes (mandatory is planned since March 1, 2019). By 2024, Russia is expected to create a unified national system of labeling and traceability of goods.
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