MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. With mandatory labeling of deer at husbandry enterprises specialists will keep records and will be able to forecast volumes of supplied meat, deer skins and horns, as well as to separate ethnic deer farms from regular commercial enterprises. This approach will contribute to the development of reindeer husbandry in Russia, experts, scientists and representatives of indigenous peoples told TASS.

Russia introduced the mandatory labeling and registration of farm animals in September, 2023. On March 1, 2024, the requirements came into force regarding cattle and small cattle, farm birds, pigs, horses, camels, deer, rabbits, bees and fur-bearing animals. The labeling assigns a unique identifier to an animal or a group of animals that remains valid for a lifetime.

According to Russia's statistics authority, Rosstat, in 2022, there were about 1.6 million deer in the Russian Federation, most of the livestock of domestic deer - more than 80% - is concentrated in the Yamalo-Nenets, Nenets, Chukotka, Yakutia, Krasnoyarsk Regions. The new system of labeling deer must be created by September 1, 2025 at reindeer herding enterprises and by September 1, 2026 at private farms. The changes will affect the traditional economic activities of 15 low-numbered indigenous peoples.

Labeling is the development of reindeer husbandry

According to Sergey Sizonenko, Vice President of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East, after long disputes, representatives of the indigenous peoples reached a consensus that the new system will favor the development of reindeer husbandry in the Russian Federation. "With the new approach, the state and the regions will understand more accurately the volume of losses that reindeer herders bear annually, as well as how many young horns, that is, antler raw materials, are available in the country. The deer slaughter for meat will show how many equally valuable products should enter the market together with meat - deer skins and hair, horns and a number of positions of raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry," he said.

The lack of a unified accounting system is a key problem for reindeer herding farms, says Mikhail Kuznetsov, director of the Vostokgosplan Research Institute. "Our task now is to develop carefully all forms of confirming the loss of the herd and writing off dead or lost animals so that this does not create problems for reindeer herders and does not force them to be involved with forgeries. The new system is aimed also at solving these problems. We must have no "dead souls" in deer," he said.

Another advantage of the mandatory labeling system is that private farms will be separated from the industry. "Reindeer husbandry has so far had two fundamentally different forms: the commercial meat production and the ethnic farms, where up to 10-15 animals may live. The new system will separate production complexes to provide targeted support for them, and the support for ethnic communities to preserve the traditional activities of indigenous peoples," Olesya Polunina, head of the Moscow Arctic Library Nr. 77 said.

The experts confirm the reindeer herders throughout Russia, with whom they have talked, are ready for the new deer labeling system and believe its timing is quite comfortable. Though the labeling will be at the expense of owners, they understand the new approach will give an impetus to the development of reindeer husbandry in the Russian Federation.