23 printing houses signed memoranda of readiness for milk labeling - Ministry of Industry and Trade

‘To date, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has signed memoranda with 23 printing houses on the two-month readiness for labeling. That is, two months before, the printing houses undertake to be fully ready for labeling,’ Zaslavsky said on Tuesday at an enlarged meeting of the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian and Food Policy and environmental management.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade published a memorandum in mid-January 2021 and called on printing houses to join it. The memorandum is signed between the Ministry, the printing house and the Center for the Advanced Technologies Development (CATD), which is the operator of the labeling system. By signing the document, the printing houses undertake to have the equipment available two months before the start of the mandatory labeling, sufficient to fulfill the necessary volume of orders related to labeling. At present, the labeling of dairy products is voluntary.

During the meeting, Zaslavsky also noted that the Ministry of Industry and Trade has developed a draft government decree providing compensation from the Industry Development Fund for organizations that will participate in the introduction of labeling, including for packaging manufacturers.

Sergey Lisovsky, a member of the Council for the Agro-Industrial complex under the Federation Council, said that reducing costs for farmers is also being discussed with the industry and the CATD.

The representative of the CATD Yulia Kuzmina noted that for farmers selling products to the end consumer, a delay is provided - labeling for them will become mandatory since December 1, 2022. For other market participants, it is introduced since June 1, 2021 (ice cream and cheeses), since September 1, 2021 (products with a shelf life of more than 40 days) since December 1, 2021 (for a period of 40 days or less).

Head of the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian and Food Policy and Environmental Management Alexey Mayorov stressed that it is necessary to facilitate the entry into the labeling system for all market participants. ‘We are well aware that labeling is an important and necessary direction, but we would like all this to happen quite smoothly, comfortably for the dairy industry. So let's keep our finger on the pulse, our interests coincide here,’ the Senator said.