The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation has prepared a draft document on mutual recognition of dairy products labeling in the EAEU

The relevant changes to the rules for labeling dairy products are posted by the Ministry on the website regulation.gov.ru.

‘The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation has developed this project to ensure a unified approach to labeling with identification means of dairy products by two or more member states of the Eurasian Economic Union, as well as to ensure their mutual recognition of identification means since the date of introduction of labeling of dairy products,’ explained in the press service of the Ministry to Interfax.

In fact, now we are talking about the mutual recognition of the means of labeling dairy products by two countries - Russia and Belarus, the other states of the EAEU have not announced the launch of labeling yet. In the Russian Federation, mandatory labeling is introduced since June 1, 2021 (at the first stage - for cheeses and ice cream, since September 1, it will be extended to dairy products with a shelf life of more than 40 days, since December 1 - to dairy products with a shelf life of up to 40 days inclusive). In Belarus, the mandatory labeling of dairy products will start on July 8, 2021 and will also apply to cheeses and milk at the first stage.

The issue of mutual recognition of the means of labeling dairy products was raised on Thursday at a meeting of the Advisory Council on foreign Investment in Russia with the participation of Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov. The president of Mars in Russia, Valery Shchapov, complained about ‘a certain imbalance of requirements for market participants’ when introducing mandatory labeling in Russia and Belarus. He also expressed concerns that ‘such inconsistencies in the dairy market in the future may be replicated, spread to other product groups.’

One of the problems, according to Shchapov, is the requirement of piece-by-piece traceability of dairy products in cross-border trade, while there is no such requirement for domestic turnover.

According to Vasily Osmakov, first Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the requirement for mandatory piece-by-piece traceability of dairy products in Russia will not be applied until December 1, 2023 (it applies only to products with a shelf life of more than 40 days; for products with a shelf life of less than 40 days piece-by-piece traceability is not provided).

Osmakov noted that the "mirror" norms concerning batch-by-batch, rather than piece-by-piece traceability of dairy products, should be fixed in the Belarusian legislation. The relevant agreements were reached with representatives of Belarus in the framework of consultations at the end of April, he said.

The first deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade answered in the affirmative to the question of the head of the Ministry of Economic Development that as a result of the harmonization of legislation, ‘we will be able to export what we have labeled here, on the territory of Russia, to the territory of Belarus - and vice versa.’