The Union of Russian Brewers (PSA) warned about the rise in price of beer by 15 percent due to the introduction of mandatory labeling, “Vedomosti” write. This was announced in contact with the Ministry of Industry. The SRP proposed a department to revise the terms and feasibility of introducing this measure.
From September 1, 2022, DataMatrix codes will begin to apply DataMatrix codes to specialized packaging (for example, on beer kegs), and from December 1, the marking will appear on consumer containers (bottle or bank). Brewers say that new demands will cost them very expensive. For example, for the purchase of the necessary equipment for labeling and instructors of codes for a large regional plant will take at least 60-80 million rubles. According to the data of the SRP, additional costs for one bottle will be up to 2 rubles.
Because of this, selling prices will increase by 3-4 percent, and taking into account the trade surcharges and the options for trade processing of codes, the cost of products for the end user will grow at least 15 percent. Since the purchasing power in Russia decreases, due to the rise in price, residents will begin less to consume high-quality drinks of domestic production. In addition, the new measures can give an impetus to the growth of the market of illegal alcohol. This means that the funds will remain in the shadow area and pass by the budget.
Brewers also drew attention to the fact that this industry has high performance (up to 60 thousand bottles per hour). Such operational application of codes on the consumer container followed by the formation of group codes for packaging products is impossible from a technical point of view. The introduction of the requirement can lead to large-scale equipment failures, a stop of production, and, as a result, large cash losses for manufacturers – one day of downtime can cost up to 30 million rubles.
Previously in December, representatives of the Association of Beer Manufacturers (APP) also stated that the mandatory marking of drinks will cause a collapse in the industry, which will be accompanied by a deficit, price increases and supply failures. Market participants also noticed that the measure of the implementation of the measure is unrealistic – in nine months the industry will not have time to provide equipment, despite its installation and testing.