During the second stage of STOP Falsification research on butter, 12 Belarusian producers were registered, not registered in the register of importers of the State Food and Consumer Service of Ukraine. Moreover, such producers are not registered even in Belarus.
These results of the study were presented by the head of the public organization "Public control of consumer protection" Vladislavф Mуronovа during a panel discussion.
According to the head of the the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection Vladyslava Magaletska, butter is one of the most falsified products. According to the results of the traffic police inspections, 90% of the counterfeit was sweet butter. This product is high margin. It is not difficult at all to make a forgery and make additional profits at the expense of forgery. Therefore, unscrupulous manufacturers are actively using it.
In the second stage of the study, 61 samples of butter from 40 manufacturers (39 Ukrainian, 1 Belarusian) were selected for analysis. As a result of research, 12 samples were found to be counterfeit. For comparison, in the first stage, 16 samples were rejected - 7 of them - counterfeit.
Belarusian producers, not registered in the register of importers, are presented on the slide:
Source: Presentation by Vladislava Mironova
If the company is not registered in the register of importers of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection, and even more so it is not registered in Belarus, it indicates that such a manufacturer does not exist. Accordingly, such a manufacturer may be an underground shop, which manufactures its products from raw materials of unknown composition and origin.
During the discussion of the study, the chairman of the supervisory board of the Union of Dairy Enterprises Vadym Chagarovskyi noted that Belarus supported the introduction of an embargo on Ukrainian dairy products in the customs territory of the Eurasian Union.
"Since January 1, 2016, not a single kg of dairy products has been exported from Ukraine to Belarus. At the same time, following the results of 10 months of 2020, we have a negative balance minus 12 million of foreign economic activity together with Belarus in the dairy industry,” the expert emphasizes.
Vadym Chagarovskyі stressed that Belarus' support for the embargo on Ukrainian dairy products can be considered under the law on foreign economic activity as unfriendly economic or discriminatory actions of states or economic groups. And on this basis, it is necessary to simply suspend the validity of permits for the import of dairy products from the Republic of Belarus.
It will be recalled that the Association of Milk Producers has repeatedly stressed that in 2020, for the first time in the history of Ukraine’s independence, the trade balance in dairy products entered a negative zone.