Representatives of the business community asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to postpone the beginning of the experiment on the labeling of brewing products, which is scheduled for April 2021, until autumn. This is stated in a letter from the President of Opora Rossii, Alexander Kalinin, to the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov (available to Izvestia). Given the significant seasonal dependence of sales of brewing products, the beginning of the experiment, coinciding with the growth in demand for such drinks, will negatively affect the overall performance of the industry, warned Alexander Kalinin.
“Taking into account the above, it is proposed to postpone the beginning of the experiment to a later date, focused on the completion of the seasonality of the sale of brewing products (September – October 2021),” the document says.
In addition, the head of Opora Rossii asked to assess the feasibility of the experiment, as well as to define clear criteria for its success and effectiveness, which would include the calculation of business costs for its implementation, as well as the availability of equipment. He also asked to exclude non-alcoholic beer, ciders and mead from the experiment, so that labeling testing was carried out on the most consistent product.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade, when asked by Izvestia whether it is planned to postpone the dates of the experiment, made it clear that the decision was final. They stressed that participation in it is purely voluntary and does not imply payment for marking codes, and entrepreneurs are provided with the necessary equipment free of charge.
Read more in the exclusive material of Izvestia:
Do not go to the bottle: the business asked to transfer the labeling of beer