MOSCOW, May 30. /TASS/. Russian producers and importers of soft drinks are ready to participate in the experiment on marking their products, industry players told TASS.
The experiment was launched under the resolution of the Russian government on May 15 of this year and will last until February 1, 2024.
"Marking of goods will make it possible to clean up the market from counterfeit products and secure the confidence of consumers in fair and high quality beverages. One of our core tasks is to provide for high quality of produce and protect against fake ones. Rosinka is using modern marking technologies to this end," a major water and beverages bottler in Russia said.
Sovlit company also stated readiness to participating in the marking experiment. "Our plant has successfully rolled out the Honest Mark system for bottled water and we plan to participate in the experiment on ‘sweet’ water. We have a wide range of beverages: kvass, lemonades, and carbonated drinks, and we are interested therefore to test the entire process of product marking as part of this experiment," Deputy CEO Sergey Rebriev said. The marking system enables using the detailed information of commercial flows and exclude the least performing intermediaries from goods chains, the senior manager said. "Accordingly, products are coming in required quality and in due place and time," he added.
Uralstar-Trade, a major Ural-based producer, intends to participate in the experiment as well. "In 2021, we were among the first to introduce the Honest Mark; everything was smooth and we are making products in the same volume. We also intend to participate in the experiment for sweet drinks, because it is among priority areas in our company," Branch Director of Uralstar-Trade trading house Natalia Bulatova said.
Ochersky Beverage Plant, which is making more than fifty product items, is ready to join marking test efforts. "We declare as a producer that the outfit of the soft drinks bottling line is similar to the outfit of natural water and mineral water lines," plant engineer Denis Lokhanin said.
Importers of beverages also have plans to join the marking experiment. "Our company is the official importer of Georgian soft drinks of Natakhtari, Sairme, SNO and Nabeglavi for more than a decade. We are well familiar with marking and perfected processes when launching mineral and bottled water. We have plans to supply sweet drinks with marking later on," Chief Commercial Officer of Akva Mir Timur Khasiev said.
The Honest Mark system is being implemented in Russia since 2019 to combat illegal turnover of goods. It is already covering dairy produce, bottled water, drugs, tobacco, footwear, light industry products, fur coats, tires, perfume and still cameras. Phased marking of beer and low-alcohol drinks is being introduced since April 1 of this year.