Unscrupulous manufacturers can be excommunicated from public procurement

Some food manufacturers capitalize by releasing a low-quality product whose composition does not match what is indicated on the packaging - for example, the manufacturer writes that the product contains only animal fats, but adds palm oil to save money. The Public Consumer Initiative (CPI) notes that counterfeit volumes on the market can be 40 or even 80%, depending on the product. At the same time, fines for counterfeiting are relatively small - up to 600 thousand rubles, so manufacturers are not afraid of them.

The OPI proposes a new initiative to combat counterfeiting, Izvestia reports, citing a letter from the organization sent to the Cabinet of Ministers. In this letter, the PIO asks the government to ban companies caught in the falsification of the product from participating in public procurement. To do this, violators will need to be included in a single black list of unscrupulous manufacturers, but this is not so difficult, the organization is sure - for example, the Federal Antimonopoly Service maintains a similar list of contractors that have violated the terms of the competition.

At the same time, food industry experts note that, in fact, such blacklists will not prevent a company from registering a new legal entity if they wish - and the low price will still become a decisive factor in choosing a contractor for a government order.

The ROSSELKHOZNADZOR noted that to combat counterfeiting, there is a Mercury system that helps track raw materials and processed products with all movements. However, most of the counterfeit accounts for non-chain retail and public procurement, and it is more difficult to catch violators here.