According to the press service of Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rospotrebnadzor), certification of food and food supplements supplied from the Netherlands has been temporarily suspended starting on July 23, 2020. The corresponding letter is available on the Rospotrebnadzor’s website at the Import-Export section. There were violations detected at two Dutch factories, but it has been decided to halt exchange with the entire country.
Dutch enterprises violated clause 8 of the Requirements for the safety of food and food supplements (developed in Kazakhstan and applied in the Russian Federation since July 1, 2010). According to the clause, food and food supplements that do not correspond to their description in the accompanying documents are not allowed to be distributed.
The requirement of the Russian Federation for mandatory state registration of food supplements produced using GMOs was also violated. In accordance with the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 23.09.2013 No. 839, products with GMOs are subject to state registration only after the state registration of the GMOs used in those products.
So far, no GMOs registered in the Russian Federation for production of animal food and food supplements. Thus, the import of Dutch products was technically a violation of the government decree.
Certification of food and food supplements from the Netherlands has been suspended until the full investigation of all violations detected in 2020.
This is the first time that Russian food producers and distributors are facing such a situation. There were temporary restrictions on products from specific factories, but there has never been a blanket restriction on the whole country. It is still difficult to even predict how this situation may end. Brands that can rapidly move their production from the Netherlands to continue shipping to Russia will probably benefit the most.
According to experts, there are a number of enterprises and companies that will suffer from this situation more than others. For example, major Russian retail chains and online stores that work with a significant private label manufacturer Jonker Petfood B. V.
Representatives of Dutch enterprises expressed their sincere surprise at the situation since they have never received any complaints from Rospotrebnadzor or Dutch regulatory authorities.
